


Pokemon: Ultra Light Version

by Revolver_Goodra



Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Main Video Game Series), Pocket Monsters: Ultra Sun & Ultra Moon | Pokemon Ultra Sun & Ultra Moon Versions
Genre: Adventure, Alola is the best, Gen, Other URS members as support crew, Pokemon Journey, Ultra Recon Squad, Ultra Sun and Moon Spoilers, Ultra Sun universe, Zossie goes on an Island Challenge
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-05
Updated: 2017-12-30
Packaged: 2019-02-11 02:31:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 19,437
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12925431
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Revolver_Goodra/pseuds/Revolver_Goodra
Summary: About five weeks after the end of Pokemon Ultra Sun, Zossie sets out to complete her own Island challenge.  With most of the chaos safely dealt with in the weeks prior; it's expected that no world ending plots will happen.  If you believe that then you have never played a Pokemon game.  Old characters show up.  A new rival and a new ice type specialist both are encountered.Tags will get added once more characters start showing up.





	1. Darkness (Prologue 1)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a Prologue chapter. More will be added throughout the story when needed. They will be listed as Chapter 0.
> 
> 1/2/2018- Happy New Year! For new years the chapter has been edited by Varisii. All of the chapters will be changed over soon. Thank you all for reading!

Ultra Megalopolis was just bustling to life as Zossie ran up to where Megalo Tower was. The rest of the city was as awake as it could be, the giant lights shining down and illuminating the path to the massive tower. It was a landmark to the city, as it could be seen in every direction of Megalopolis for miles. The light from it pierced the perpetual darkness that their world was always shrouded in. Zossie was used to this darkness, the light was welcomed, but most of the citizens had amazing night vision. Generations of living in the dark had also turned their skin such a pale shade that it in the proper lighting it appeared to be blue. Zossie had never known anything other than the darkness of her world. She had heard stories of worlds with light, which fueled her curiosity to the point to where she had started looking into these tales herself when she was young.

That is what had brought her here.

The entrance to the tower loomed above her. The light was almost blinding to her now that she stood right at the entrance. She didn’t know if she should just walk in, knock, or just wait outside. She stood at the entrance until a voice called off to her near the side of the tower.

“Ah you must be the new recruit! Splendid!” An older man with a very well groomed mustache greeted her. Zossie had never seen a mustache that regal looking before, and she was distracted for a second before gathering her thoughts once again. She nodded and flashed a huge grin before her thoughts wandered off again, her mind going at a million miles an hour, as per the usual. 

 

The man gave her a welcoming smile, twirling his mustache in his free hand as he continued speaking.

"I have heard a lot about you already my dear, the Ultra Recon Squad will be lucky to have you.”

Zossie felt a combination of joy and excitement bubbling up in her chest as he spoke, she responded with almost a shout.

“Great! When can I start?!” Zossie couldn’t even pretend to hide her excitement at this point, she was almost vibrating in place with how much enthusiasm she was exerting, but she couldn’t help it! She was so excited! 

“So much energy. I wish I had that amount of energy again”, the man chuckled and shook his head, “Enthusiasm is always welcome here my dear. I am the Captain of the Ultra Recon Squad, Phyco. The other two members, Dulse and Soliera, will be pleased to have a member with such enthusiasm like you. Now come with me. We have a lot of registration to get to”, He began to walk off and motioned for Zossie to follow him. The tower was dimly lit by some artificial lamps hanging from the ceiling, but they didn’t do much to illuminate the interior of the tower. Most of the light came from the monitors scattered around the room, their luminescent glow giving just enough light so that Zossie could see another figure inside. In front of her, a woman with deep blue hair was in the room. She was adjusting one of the monitors that showed a variety of information, but from this distance, Zossie couldn’t make out what was on the monitor.

Phyco strode into the room with Zossie in tow behind him, his deep voice blaring over the almost silent humming of the monitors, even though he wasn’t shouting at all.

“Soliera, have you got the readings on the blinding one?” He addressed the blue haired woman.

The women didn’t move or give any indication that she had heard Phyco, until she finally turned and spoke. “The monitor has been out for a while Captain”, Soliera sighed pinching the bridge of her nose before adding, “Dulse is trying to see if something shorted out”.

Zossie took a closer look at the monitor now that she was able to view it more closely. The monitor’s display was scattered and unreadable, pieces of the data seemed to be scattered around the digital display, not making much sense at all. Zossie reached up and tapped on it, but the display was frozen, not reacting at all to Zossie’s touch. Soliera and Phyco were too concentrated on their own conversation so they didn’t notice that Zossie was messing with the monitor. She brought one of the step stools out from the corner and dragged it up to the monitor. She tilted the screen slightly down so she could see it better. Pressing a button on the side of it, she realized exactly what the problem was. She smirked as she opened the side panel and started tinkering with the wires. Eventually, after some tinkering, the display flickered back to life. Zossie put the side panel of the display back on and looked at the monitor. It was… a variety of numbers and letters of some sort? Zossie wasn’t sure what the data meant, but she noticed that they appeared to be very high numbers.

“Does this mean that we have to get new equipment? Please tell me that we don’t have to get new equipment. If so, Dulse has to do it this time, I did it the last time and I was on the phone   
for hours and… Wait, what’s that kid doing?” Soliera finally noticed Zossie who had just gotten down from the step stool.

“That “kid” is our newest member Soliera”, Phyco chuckled to himself, looking up at the now operational monitor, “and it looks like she’s already helping us out”.

“Captain you can’t be serious, she’s a kid...”, Soliera said gently, aware that said kid was right in front of her. Zossie frowned, but she had expected this. Adults always seemed to look down on her because of her age, but that didn’t mean that she liked it.

“A kid that just fixed one of the monitors that neither you nor Dulse seemed to be able figure out on your own.” Phyco quickly pointed out, “I’m aware of Zossie’s age, but her skills as a technician are phenomenal amidst even the adult population”. Phyco turned back to Zossie and smiled at her warmly, while twirling his mustache again before asking, “ How did you manage to get that display working again?”

“I figured there was just something wrong with the internal signal that picked up the remote frequency, so I just readjusted the wiring so it would pick up the signal properly again and receive the data from....wherever it was getting the signal from...”, Zossie trailed off for a second, lost in thought, but quickly snapped her attention back into focus and smiled as big as she could towards Phyco and Soliera.

Soliera raised her eyebrows, actually looking impressed with what she had accomplished. Her expression quickly changed as she turned back to the Captain, a look of clear concern written on her face. “We’re not putting her in any actual danger right?”

Phyco continued to twirl his mustache but instead of answering, gave his own question. “Where is Dulse anyways?” Phyco instead asked her, “I wanted him to meet our newest member.”

“He’s checking the status of the rest of the monitors”, she said with a slight tone of annoyance. 

Phyco nodded, “Well then, let’s just have you fill out your information in the meantime shall we?” Phyco walked over to the monitor and motioned for her to sit, she walked over and set herself in the chair, looking at the monitor on screen. Phyco patted her on the shoulder and moved back to Soliera continuing their conversation.

Zossie could hear the adults continuing their conversation in the background, but tuned out their conversation, instead favoring to focus on the questions in front of her. The questions weren’t anything more than the usual fare of what you would input for a job, and Zossie found herself filling them out rather easily, her mind wandering between idle thoughts and actually filling out the questions.

She continued on this for a while, becoming more disinterested and bored as she went on, until she was snapped out of her trance by a familiar voice. 

“So, Zossie is it? Welcome to the team”, Soliera formally greeted her with a small smile. She placed a glass on the table next to her, “I thought you would like something to drink”.  
Zossie immediately brightened up, taking the glass “I do! Thank you!” Zossie eagerly started sipping the drink, feeling a little more energized to continue her work.

“Let me know if you need anything okay?” Soliera smiled. Zossie nodded as she renewed her focus on the computer. 

Suddenly, a voice that Zossie hadn’t heard before entered the room, dividing her attention once again from her current task.

“Soliera, all of the other monitors are online”, A man with bright pink hair entered the room, he stood tall, but his face was one of impassiveness and focus. He caught a glance at the now working monitor in the corner. “Oh, you fixed it already?” He spoke in a dry and flat tone.

“It was something wrong with the internal signal. Zossie here fixed it”, Soliera nodded at her, “This is Dulse. With him introduced you have met everyone else stationed here”.

“This is the one the Captain mentioned?” Dulse looked at Zossie locking his eyes on her. His gaze was cold and emotionless, and made her feel a little uncomfortable. Zossie waved at him, wondering to herself if he had ever smiled in his life. “She’s… a lot younger than I thought she would be”.

Zossie puffed her cheeks at that comment and spoke up “I’m still like, really smart”, she pointed out, “I’ll only get smarter after all”.

“Captain Phyco is adamant that we won’t find anyone else like her to handle the data here”, Soliera quickly added looking over at Zossie and chuckling to herself, “Besides, she’s already made herself at home”.

Dulse didn’t say anything to that, he simply stared at her a moment longer before turning away. He walked across the room and over to the monitor to get a better look at it.

“What’s up with him?” Zossie whispered to Soliera.

Soliera gave her another gentle smile and said in a reassuring voice. “He’s always like that, he’ll warm up to you though”.

Zossie nodded, unsure if that would be the case, but taking the answer as it came. She didn’t doubt Soliera, as she didn’t seem like someone that would lie to her, but she was unsure that   
Dulse could “warm up” to anyone. She sat back down and quickly finished filling out the rest of the employment information. After finishing and hitting the send button she looked back up to Soliera.

“I’m done here! Now what?” Zossie cheerfully announced. She looked around the room. Phyco seemed to have left at some point, and Dulse was still examining the monitor. Soliera was opened her mouth to say something to Zossie when she was suddenly cut off.

“Soliera”, Dulse warily said, “The Captain is worried about these numbers being much higher than they should be, correct?” Soliera stopped and looked over to Dulse before hastily moving to get a better look at the monitor. Zossie followed behind her, wanting to see what was going on, and took a closer look at the monitor. She saw the numbers, but without a baseline or even an idea of what numbers represented there was nothing Zossie could draw from them. Even someone as smart as her couldn’t get anything out of just raw data.

“This is bad”, Soliera agreed, a bit of panic now being apparent in her voice, “Necrozma is in a high state of distress. We need to take action before it’s too late”. Zossie felt a bit lost. What was this "Necrozma"? She had never heard this name before, but was that the name they had given to the Blinding One? She was lost, unsure what to make of all of this.

“Ah, there you are Dulse”, Zossie looked back, Phyco had returned to the room. He looked over the three. “What seems to be the matter?”

“Captain, the number readings are alarmingly high, what should we do?” Dulse answered. Phyco’s eyebrows raised but walked over to the monitor. As he read the data, his eyes got wide.

“This… this is very bad”.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First of all, Ultra SuMo is a fantastic group of games and the Ultra Recon Squad is fantastic. A few bits of notes before we get fully started though.
> 
> \- I've got it in my head that Zossie is this child genius or something seeing as she's the one reading aura measurements in Ultra Sun.  
> \- I had to go back and edit some things once I got my hands on Ultra Moon. Yes I do have both games. Yes I am a nerd. You are too, you're the one reading a Pokemon fanfic.


	2. Worlds

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Five weeks past after Necrozma has been defeated, Zossie and Dulse find themselves with a moment where various worlds aren't falling down. With adventure on the horizon, Zossie and Dulse do the one thing that they should do- Island Challenge preparation shopping.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fun fact- This chapter was originally two separate chapters but I decided to stick them both together so I can get the narrative moving a bit!

Aether Paradise was always a very comfortable place to Zossie. The weather inside was controlled perfectly to suit the Pokémon living there. Plus it wasn’t too bright so she didn’t have to worry about having to wear her visor. She loved to spend time in the conservation area so that she could pet the Corsola there. They all seemed really happy to have the attention, and she was happy to provide it to them. Zossie really wanted to have her own Pokémon, especially since Necrozma had been dealt with. She and Dulse still had work to do, but the urgency wasn’t nearly as high as it was before.

“So you both are planning to stay for a bit then?” The Scientist called Colress was speaking to Dulse. She was listening, but she was also observing the Corsola peacefully gathered across from her on one of the big rocks.

“Yes, I fear that some of the wormholes brought some uninvited guests here”, Dulse answered flatly. “We still have a lot to learn of this place, and about Pokémon. The Captain wants us to stay here, at least for the moment”.

“Ah, speaking of which, Necrozma has been captured by that Pokémon trainer that I met on Akala, and as such, I gave her the devices I had obtained”, Colress reported. Zossie spotted the head branch guy, Faba, leaving the conservation area by the elevator. She never had a good feeling about that guy. Something about him just felt...off.

“Ah, Polaris. She is a very strong Pokémon trainer, I have no doubt that she will take excellent care of Necrozma”, Dulse nodded.

“Word is that she’s the very first Alolan Champion”, Colress agreed, “Necrozma couldn’t be in better hands”.

“See, I knew she was awesome!” Zossie pitched in. Whatever “champion” meant, she was sure it meant that she was really, really strong. “The island challenge must’ve made her super strong”, she stated excitedly. 

She still wanted to try her own island challenge. It’s for eleven year olds, and she was so close to being eleven. She could stand to wait until next month if that meant she could have a Pokémon of her own and travel to all the different islands. It would be fun to see all of Alola without the urgency of the world’s light in danger, and she could stand to wait a little longer if it meant being able to do so.

“You should go on one yourself, you look like you’re about that age”, Colress agreed with her silent wish, adjusting his glasses and smiling down at her. Somehow, he had picked up on exactly what she was thinking. “Maybe you can test that theory of yours”.

“Yes!” Zossie aimed her smile at Dulse, “That’s a great way to put it! We gotta tell Phyco and-“

“Calm yourself Zossie”, Dulse sighed, “You still have about a month. We still have plenty of things to do before then. I’m sure Phyco will let you go on this experiment of yours”. He paused, and then added, “In the meantime, you are very much needed for the readings”.

Zossie nodded, a little disappointed, but she understood. She couldn’t wait.

\-------------------------------------------------------  
Five Weeks later

“Team Rainbow Rocket's motives were largely unknown, but it seems like the danger from them has passed thanks to the bravery of our Champion and her friends”, the TV at Aether Paradise was showing the report of the takeover of Aether Mansion rather late. Of course, Aether Paradise was still getting cleaned up. Zossie and Dulse were doing what they could to help, but the cleanup was progressing smoothly. Zossie was watching the TV while getting fresh water from the vending machine. It has been a while since she had seen any of them, and she silently wondered how they were all doing. Polaris and her friends had been at the center of the Rainbow Rocket incident, and Zossie had wished she could have helped them more, but with no Pokemon, there wasn’t anything she could really have done to help. This whole incident had just made her more determined to take the island challenge, but with this setback, she didn’t know if she would be able to do that anytime soon. She sighed and took the fresh water in her hand and ran to the elevator to take it up to the conservation floor.

As Zossie got the conversation floor through the elevator, she heard Dulse speaking. “Everything’s as quiet as we left it”, he was talking to Soliera through the communicator she had helped developed. They had taken a week to go back to Ultra Megalopolis to regroup and for her to get started on developing the device. It used energy from the Ultra wormholes to communicate through Ultra space, allowing them to keep in contact with Phyco and Soliera back at home. While Zossie did love Alola and exploring the new world, she had still missed Phyco and Soliera. This way she could at least hear their voices.

“I’m still worried on how this “Rainbow Rocket” got to that world”, Soliera mused. “Did they use an Ultra Wormhole? If so… how?”

“Zossie and I have been investigating that while assisting the cleanup”, Dulse shook his head, “We haven’t found anything yet, nor are we sure that they plan to stop with this setback. Their leader seems to have disappeared. This development is troubling.”

Zossie walked out of hearing range to go see the Corsola. She noticed that one of them looked sadder than the others. Zossie grabbed a bowl and emptied half of the fresh water into it and set it down by that Corsola. It looked at Zossie for a second before starting to drink the water. It looked happier and it cried at Zossie looking more content. She felt worried about Rainbow Rocket, but with Polaris here she shouldn’t have to… right? The rest of the Corsola shyly peeked out of the rock formation they loved to hide out in, looking at Zossie from their hiding spots.  
Still, she had since turned eleven while everything had been going on. Her island challenge dream had to be put on hold due to the chaos. She was perfectly capable of being patient when needed. However, she was at her limit! She had been looking forward to going on this island challenge for so long, and the thought of having to wait any longer was infuriating. She shifted her attention to get off her frustration, wondering what kind Pokémon she could make friends with. Pikachu, Furfrou, Diglett… so many to choose from. Even, maybe, a Corsola! She grinned to herself as she imagined this. Dulse had done all of the Pokémon battling with Polaris. He had told her it would have looked weird for her to do it instead of him if they were going to blend in. Well, blending in was something they couldn't really do that well, but Dulse figured that they should have made at least some kind of attempt.

“There you are”, Dulse addressed her. “The communicators work like a charm. I was worried that they wouldn’t be able to reach Phyco and Soliera but we can hear each other very clearly”.

“Awesome!” She said with a grin, “We’ll be able to all stay in touch no matter how far we are!”

“So, when are you planning on leaving?” Dulse asked her in his usual dry tone. Zossie looked confused and looked at him with a questioningly glance. “You do want to try the island challenge don’t you? If we happen to need your assistance we do have a way to get in contact with you after all”.

“Really? You’ll let me go?” She searched her partner’s face to see if she could tell if he was joking. Not that it helped, he still had that same frown that he always had. Even over a year later she couldn’t recall a single time Dulse had ever smiled. She briefly wondered what would happen if he did. He’d probably break his face doing so.

“Yes. I’m serious”, He confirmed. “I can handle the work here. Anything I’ll need help with I can contact you for”.

Zossie’s eyes widened and she found herself yelling at the top of her lungs. “You’re the best!” Zossie had never been happier. She had remembered how happy Hau and Polaris looked with their Pokémon on their island challenge. Even their Pokémon looked happy. It had to be a great idea if everyone involved was happy right? Not to mention the Z-Crystals she would need to collect, she could be just like Polaris! Of course she could investigate the Z-Crystals, the Totem Pokémon auras, the Z-Moves… this had practical uses as well.

“Dulse, tell me the truth. How happy is she?” Soliera’s voice had a hint of amusement in it.

“She’s always smiling Soliera”. Dulse pointed out in his usual bored tone. “I can just see the excitement in her eyes though”.

“This will be good for her”, Phyco added in. “Especially since Necrozma has been dealt with”.

“When can I leave!?” Zossie excitedly asked, “I’ve gotta get a Pokémon and learn how to battle with it and travel with it everywhere!” Zossie was practically vibrating, her mind was going a million miles an hour, trying to catch up with everything that was suddenly happening.

“We need to go to Melemele Island first. There you can get your amulet”. Dulse stated, but Zossie wasn’t listening to him. She was too wrapped up in her excitement to listen. Dulse sighed. 

He needed to find Wicke to see how quickly they could catch a boat to Melemele.

\----------------------------------------------

Dulse really didn’t mind boat rides. It was nothing compared to the Ultra Wormholes atop Lunala after all. Zossie, however, had fallen asleep after her long day of being excited. Dulse thought that Zossie reminded him of a little sister rather than a tech assistant. He was initially unsure of bringing the young girl with him to an unknown world but the circumstances had barred him from having a choice in the matter. After the mission was said and done however, he was thankful she had come along. She seemed to never pay attention to the mission at times, but she was a bright kid. He could barely figure out that aura reader of her’s half the time anyway, plus it was her that helped out with the beast ball design. _“It’s gotta look like an Ultra wormhole! That’s the point!”_

The communicator buzzed to life, and Dulse pressed the button on the side of the device to answer. Instead of seeing the standard sound wave indicator on the screen a projection showed. Soliera smiled when she saw that it had worked.

“The Captain and I finally were able to get this working on our end”, Soliera confirmed what Dulse had already figured when he had seen her on the screen. He and Zossie hadn’t had the time to install the feature on Soliera and Phyco’s end, but Zossie had it working on their end in no time at all. He had heard of this world’s humans creating something similar in a region known as “Kalos”. Zossie had figured that they could also make it work for them across Ultra Space.

“Just in time. We’re on our way to the Professor’s lab”, Dulse had visited Kukui the last time they were on Melemele island. It was quick, as they had to head out to Poni as quickly as they could, but he had arranged it so that Zossie would be all set come her turning of age. “The arm Zossie has is outfitted for the communicator as well so she can talk to any of us whenever she wants”.

“Where is she anyways?” Soliera asked.

“Asleep”, Dulse angled the device so that Soliera can see her sleeping. Dulse’s Poipole was curled up with her.

“All tired out from all that excitement I see”, she chuckled. She paused for a second. “This will be good for her”, she said with full seriousness. “From what we gathered from her application,   
she didn’t list any family members. She probably had to grow up rather quickly, the poor girl”. Soliera was their group’s official XO, and as such, she usually handled most of the paperwork that Phyco didn’t want to bother with. Phyco and her were partners for a while before Dulse had even joined the squad about four years ago. It didn’t surprise him at all that she had this information.

“She was an orphan?” He asked. Soliera just nodded. “She always seemed really cheerful out here, she wouldn't strike me as the type that lived by herself”.

“There are places for kids whose parents can’t take care of them, she probably was at one of them”, Soliera explained, “She’s very smart. I wonder how much of this excitement of hers is her reaction to her finally getting to be a...well, you know, a kid?”

Dulse didn’t answer her, he just silently looked down at the sleeping girl.

“How do you think she’ll do?” Soliera asked him.

“All I know is that she’ll probably enjoy every moment”, Dulse answered.  
\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
“So, I was told that you need supplies in order to embark on this challenge”, Dulse said as he flipped through the booklet that Kukui gave him. “Luckily, an Aether member has kindly donated to your cause”.

“Ohhh, I wonder who it was!” Zossie said excitedly, “Oh! I bet it was Wicke, she always gives me the best food from Alola!”

“Um, yeah”, Dulse looked down at the wallet he had found while wondering how he would acquire the necessary funds. An ID in the wallet indicated that it belonged to the ex-branch chief Faba. Dulse hoped Faba had kept enough in his wallet to go around here. Thanks to his involvement in the Rainbow Rocket fiasco, he was little more than an intern now, and with that came a huge paycut.

“Oh! Look Dulse!” Zossie had gone from walking right by him to dashing in front of a Malasada shop. “It’s what Miss Wicke loves to give me!”

“Zossie, Focus”, Dulse stated calmly before sighing. “We need to get what you need first then we’ll get something to eat if we’re not late to see the professor”.

“Oh right”, Zossie giggled as she followed Dulse to the shopping mall. “Sorry”.  
\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dulse had ended up wondering two things today. First, he wondered how Faba had managed to collect the amount of money that he kept in his wallet. Second, how much energy did Zossie even have? They had stopped by so many stores, and still she was full of energy! The last place they had stopped at was a small clothing store. Zossie wanted to see if there was anything she can do to fit in better.

“You’re very sensitive to light”, Dulse pointed out.

“It’s cool Dulse! Look what they got!” Zossie stuck on a pair of sunglasses.

“Are you sure that will work?”

“I’ll keep my visor! Don’t worry”, she said as she picked up one of their hats. It had a lovely sky blue flower on it. The brim was wide enough to help protect her eyes as well. “I can wear this too!”

“Will all of this fit in your bag with the rest of your things?” Zossie had opted to use a fabric bag for her challenge. The only piece of equipment she was going to take was the arm piece that had her communicator and aura reader in it. She had created it when she heard she was going to Alola, and she was the only one who could even use it as it wouldn’t fit it on anyone else’s arm. Unlike the bulky backpack that she had, the arm piece was very light. Dulse wasn’t too surprised that she didn’t want to take the backpack with her.

“This bag seems to fit a lot”, she observed as she somehow shoved her visor into the pale purple bag. Dulse didn’t know how she was fitting so much in what appeared to be a hardly spacious bag, but decided to not pursue this anomaly. Suddenly, Zossie’s now visible eyes grew wide.

“Dulse. How much spare money do you have?” she asked. Dulse followed her eyes and almost groaned when he saw what she was looking at with such wonder. It was a stuffed Toucannon plush.

“You know, you can get a real one on your island challenge”, He pointed out.

“Please?”

“Nothing you will say can convince me that you need a stuffed Pokémon when you can have a real one”, Dulse argued back. He held up his Poipole’s pokeball. “A real Pokémon slept with you on your way here!”

She didn’t say a single word. She just continued to stare at him with her huge eyes.

“That’s not going to work”, Dulse countered. “It might for the Captain or Soliera but I’m not going to fall for that”.  
\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dulse and Zossie headed to Kukui’s lab, Zossie was now happily eating a malasala while also holding her new Toucannon stuffed Pokémon doll in her arms.

“Couldn’t resist her eyes huh? Should have never let her take her visor off”, Soliera’s teasing tone and picture appeared crystal clear on Zossie’s arm communicator.

“Quiet”.

Soliera giggled to herself before turning her face in Zossie’s direction “So, those are the things called “sunglasses”? Do they work alright?”

“Yeah”, Zossie nodded, “The hat works well too. I feel like no one's going think I stand out too much”.

“Aside from being very, very pale”, Dulse was quick to point out. He fished out what was left of the money from Faba’s wallet and gave it to her. “Just in case you need it. Apparently when you beat trainers they give you money so hopefully will not require it”.

“Where did you find that?” Soliera asked Dulse questioningly. He quickly shoved the wallet into his backpack. She had a slight disapproving look on her face.

“Dulse said someone donated to my cause”, Zossie said smiling wide.

“Is this true?” Soliera asked glaring daggers in Dulse’s direction. Lying to Soliera was not a smart idea, and he really didn’t want to find out if she could get to Alola without Lunala’s help.

“It’s getting returned when I get back to Aether Paradise”, Dulse said, technically not lying to her. Soliera didn’t look any bit impressed with his answer, but he could tell she wasn’t going to pursue it any longer...for now anyway.

Finally they had reached Kukui’s lab. Dulse could tell he was there, mostly because the door seemed to be completely off of its hinges. Suddenly a loud voice cried out from inside the house.

“Lillie!” Kukui shouted from inside the shack, “You think this can be popped back into place?”

Lillie looked even more confident than the last time Zossie had seen her nearly two months ago. A Clefairy tailed her as she inspected the broken door.

“Um, maybe?” Even her new confident persona didn’t make that hesitant answer sound convincing. Kukui walked outside and inspected the door himself, placing a hand on his chin in contemplation.

“An Alola to both of you!” Zossie shouted out, sprinting towards the house. Dulse quickly realized that Zossie had ran ahead of him… again. Lillie and Kukui turned to look at the new arrivals.

“Oh, it’s you two”, Lillie clearly remembered them from the Altar of the Sunne. “It has been a while. You both look well”.

“Thank you”, Dulse turned to the Professor “It took a while, but do you remember what I came to talk to you about the last time I saw you?”

“About the Island challenge for your buddy here right?” Kukui looked over to where Zossie was. Zossie was occupied asking Lillie if she could pet her Clefairy. Kukui looked her over before finally answering Dulse again. “She’s a bit small for an eleven year old”.

“Your vegetation doesn’t grow as well in places with less light”, Dulse pointed out, “I don’t see why it could be the same for us”.

“Good point, she’s like she used minimize before she got here”, Kukui smiled and laughed. “I’m sure the Kahuna of the island will love to meet such an energetic challenger!” Zossie was too busy petting Lillie’s Clefairy to notice.

“Zossie has no shortage of energy that’s for certain”, Dulse agreed flatly.

“All the way from Ultra Space for a challenge”, Kukui nodded, “I can’t deny anyone with that amount of spirit!”

“Alright!” Zossie yelled, “I’m gonna be a Pokémon trainer!” Lillie’s Clefairy, who was in her lap, looked very happy as well.

“We just got to hustle to the Kahuna so we can get your first Pokémon, then go from there”.

“I want a Rowlet!” Zossie remembered how cute yet powerful Polaris’s Rowlet was back when they first met her. It had held up rather well to Dulse’s newly caught Furfrou, which was back at home keeping Soliera and Phyco company since Dulse took one of the Poipole, back when it was still little.

“Well, it seems like you’re all set up. Let me know if you need my help”, Dulse said to to her. Zossie paused for a second, even with all the excitement, she still was really sad to see him go. She had gotten really used to him always being around and she felt like she was going to miss him. “Soliera and the Captain are both reachable, but I’m going to stay in Alola so let me know if you are in any danger”.

“I know”, Zossie nodded, “I’ll be safe. I’ll have a Pokémon like Poipole to protect me”.

“Just, don’t do anything rashly”, Dulse sternly said.

Zossie laughed before bidding him goodbye. She walked off with Kukui and Lillie, leaving Dulse there to himself. He then fished out the now empty wallet from his backpack. He suddenly remembered that he now had to give this moneyless wallet back to its original owner.

He was not looking forward to that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The next chapter might be a while until I can put it up. My job is rather hectic at the moment. (retail during holidays. whee!) Plus I'm trying to finish both Ultra Moon and Ultra Sun. 
> 
> The character of Polaris is basically the name of my Pokemon Moon character whose team is a mashup of my Moon, Ultra Moon, and two different Ultra Sun playthroughs.


	3. Beginnings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Zossie runs into a new friends and old friends as the eve of the Island challenge brings fun and a few new mysteries.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wanna say THANK YOU! to everyone who's been enjoying this so far and letting me know. I was really hesitant at first to post Ultra Light on this kind of platform. Now, back to the fun!

Back at Ultra Megalopolis

 

“Captain”, Soliera placed a cup of Tapu Cocoa at his desk, “You should really try this. Zossie sent me the steps needed to make this. It’s really good”.

“Thank you”, Phyco looked at it. It was very warm. He sipped a bit of it. Soliera sat at the other end of the table. “It’s very good. Give my thanks to Zossie for sending it to us”. He placed it down. “You know, now that we got a moment of peace it’s good to just admire what Alola has to offer”.

“With Zossie on her island challenge she might send us more”, Soliera reminded him.

“To think, the Ultra Recon Squad has been active for over ten years and it wasn’t until last year we stumbled across something this big”, Phyco took another sip of his Tapu Cocoa. “Do we still have connection to remotely monitor Alola?”

“As long as Zossie or Dulse are in Alola I can read their equipment from here. I also have a remote link to a Pokedex database of some sort”, Soliera answered.

“A what”

“It’s a database filled with information on Pokémon. I figured that it can help out Zossie on her challenge. That trainer that came here, Polaris, she had something like that on her”, Soliera clarified.

“You’re going to keep an eye on her through the comms?” Phyco asked.

“Of course Captain”, Soliera confirmed. “I’m going to be on call whenever she needs help. Dulse is on an alternate line just in case something abnormal appears. He’ll be stationed until further orders”.

“Good. How are the readings for right now?”

“I’ve seen some spikes of activity in conjunction with Ultra Space, but that should be expected thanks to the Rainbow Rocket attack on Aether”, Soliera reported. “I’m going to keep an eye on that to see if it will go down anytime soon”.

“Good work. I couldn’t ask for a better XO in all of this”, Phyco pulled one of his rare smiles. “Keep an eye on Zossie as well. I know how much that girl likes you”.

Back in Alola, Route One

Zossie’s mind was racing. A Pokémon, just for her! Dulse usually let her hang out with his Poipole whenever they had any rare off time, but this Pokémon will be under her care. 

“So we’re locked on to a Rowlet?” Kukui asked her.

“I mean, I wouldn’t mind seeing my other choices”, Zossie realized that she wasn’t sure what the other two Pokémon were.

“Of course! Once we meet with the Kahuna we’ll get that all sorted out. Now stay close to me and Lillie when going near tall grass. Pokémon love to jump out and you don’t have your own Pokémon yet”. Zossie stayed close to the two of them. They crossed the patch of grass without too much trouble. Keeping on Zossie spied something glimmering out the corner of her eye. It was really close to a patch of tall grass, but with some careful maneuvering… 

She ran out as quietly as she could. She picked up the sparkly stone that she had saw. It was smooth on one side, on the other some kind of design was on it. She had seen this design before… but where?

“Hissssss” Zossie turned around to see a Yungoos glaring straight at her. It looked very angry. Zossie backed away slowly.

“Pi-Pi!” a bolt of lightning stuck right by the Yungoos, scaring it off. Zossie saw a small Pichu right by her. It looked happily at Zossie. 

“Hey thank you buddy!” Zossie pet the Pichu. It nuzzled up to her hand and got on her shoulder. “Hey! You wanna come with me or something?!”

“Zossie? Where did she go Kukui?” Zossie heard Lillie say.

“I’m right here! Wait up!” Zossie got up with the Pichu still hanging on her shoulder. 

“Ah, are you okay? You didn’t get lost did you?” Lillie asked, “I tend to get lost a bit now and again. Oh, who's that on your shoulder?”

“Oh”, Zossie realized the Pichu was still on her shoulder, “Yeah, I got a friend”, she gave the Pichu a small pat on the head.

“Pichu!” 

“You know, not everyone starts out with a Rowlet, Litten, or Poppilo. Maybe that Pichu wants to travel with you instead!” Kukui said.

“You wanna come with me Pichu?” Zossie asked the Pichu.

“Only one way to be sure, to catch it!” Kukui handed Zossie a Pokeball. “Usually you have to weaken a Pokémon to catch it, but some that are more willing to travel with you won’t put up too much of a fight”.

Zossie looked at the Pichu. It was as small as any Pichu. She held up the Pokeball by Pichu. It head butted the Pokeball, causing Zossie to drop the Pokeball. It opened, turning the Pichu into energy before going into the open ball. Snapping shut, it started to move a bit before stopping. It made a clicking noise. Zossie smiled. It was just like that time Dulse caught Furfrou, except it took a lot more than one ball. The beast balls seemed to have a much harder time catching Alola Pokémon.

“There have been precedence of someone starting with a Pikachu in Kanto, freshly caught one as well”, Kukui nodded, “That Pichu seemed to really like you already cousin. You can give it a nickname if you want”.

Zossie looked at the Pokeball that had her first Pokémon in it. She thought for a second about a name for it. She let it out of the Pokeball. It’s eyes are super shiny looking. Zossie smiled. She could see the light in that Pokémon’s eyes, eager to adventure with its new best friend. 

“Luxi is a good name for you yes?” Zossie picked Luxi up, “Do you like it?”

“Pi Pi!” Luxi squeaked. 

 

“A new young one wants to take the island challenge!” Kahuna Hala towered over Zossie. Hau was in Iki town as well, he seemed to be decorating for something. Zossie couldn’t tell. Luxi was perched on her shoulder. “What a surprise, we had another young lady stop by for her island challenge”. Hala looked around. “Huh, wonder where she could have gone? Hmmm, no matter. I’m sure she’ll show up soon. Looks like you already have a Pokémon as well”.

“Yeah! Luxi wanted to come along for the ride!” Zossie patted Luxi.

“You’ll be making friends with more Pokémon before you know it”, Hala handed her a small amulet. Zossie recognized it immediately as the island challenge amulet. She placed it right on her bag. 

“Four Islands!” Kukui held up four fingers. “Your goal is to travel to each of them, collecting Z-Crystals as you go from each of the Trial Captains. Once you completed all trials on an island you get to face the island Kahuna in a Pokémon battle. Once you defeated the Kahuna, you move on to the next island. Once you defeated the last Kahuna, you’ll figure out where to go next”.

“If you find any kind of sparkling stones, let me know right away”, Hala added. Zossie’s eyes grew wide.

“Like this one?” Zossie fished out the pure white rock she found. It seemed to reflect the sunlight in a way that made it faintly glow orange, the same color as the sunset. 

“Never seen one that looked like that”, he muttered as Zossie gave it to him. The pattern was clear to him on what it was, even though the color of the stone wasn’t the usual off white to black. “I’ll have something for you later on. Stick around for the fun in the meantime”.

“Is that what all the decorations are for?” Zossie asked.

“Haha, just a small celebration for Tapu Koko. One is always needed to send off the new challengers such as yourself”.

“Tutu! Everythings almost ready!” Hau ran over to Hala, his Primarina following close behind him.

“Hau! An Alola to you!” Zossie greeted him.

“Hey it’s been a while!” Hau looked around, “Your friend isn’t here?”

“Dulse can’t take the Island Challenge, he’s too old”, Zossie briefly wondered what Dulse looked like when he was her age. She can kind of picture it. 

“You’re taking the Island Challenge?” Hau looked shocked. Zossie nodded. “Well, good luck then! It really taught me a lot about my Pokémon. Also be sure to try out all of the malasada places along the way!” He gave her a huge smile. 

“Well, we better get this all finished up before nightfall”, Hala placed the sparkling stone in his pocket. 

 

“So, that’s your first Pokémon?” Soliera took a close look at Luxi. “Cute”

“Yeah Luxi just saved me from that angry Yungoose”, Zossie was trying to stay out of the way of everyone preparing. She thought the best thing to do was to show everyone her new Pokémon. “Oh yeah! I got the amulet as well!” She held up the amulet so Soliera could see. Doing so disturbed her bag in a way that caused a small pink flower to fall out of it.

“Something feel out of you bag Zossie”, Soliera tried to look closer at it, but she couldn’t quite see it. “What is it?”

“The lady at the clothing store gave it to me. It’s a flower they use here to give thanks”, Zossie placed it back in her bag, “I thought it looked pretty”.

“Keep a hold of it, it might bring you good luck”, Soliera suggested. “I have a link to the Pokedex network thanks to your champion friend’s coordination with us. Would you like to see what I can tell you about Pichu?”

“Yes please!”

“Well, first. Every Pokémon has its own nature. Luxi here seems to be a female Pichu with a rash nature. It says here that Pichu are a type of baby Pokémon. She’s still young so be careful with her”. Zossie nodded, giving Luxi a small pat on the head. 

“Here, Hau gave me a few Pokebeans, you wanna try some?” Zossie gave Luxi a few. She happily ate them.

“It seems like Pokémon with the rash nature prefer dry food”, Soliera read.

“She seems to like these though. I wonder what they taste like?”

Out from the corner of her eye, Zossie could see other people start to arrive. One of them was a girl that looked around her age. The girl had bright white hair and pale red eyes. She wore small glasses and a wide brim hat. She looked super pale for an Alolan. She mainly wore light green clothes. She had a small yellow and black Pokémon that Zossie hasn’t seen before that was following her. On her dark green bag, Zossie could see an island challenge amulet like hers tied around the strap. 

“I think I see the other girl doing the Island challenge. I better get off of here Soliera”, Zossie turned the comm off.

“Oh, I’m not the only one on the challenge like I thought I would be”, the girl took notice of Zossie. “I’m Sorrel, this here is Mawile”.

“Maw!” Mawile greeted.

“Hi! I’m Zossie!” Zossie stood up, Luxi jumping on her shoulder when she did. “this is my Pichu, Luxi!”

“I’m not creative enough for a nickname for you that’s why”, Sorrel said as an aside to her confused looking Mawile. “Nice to meet you Zossie!”

“We are ready to begin!” Hala announced from the stage. The next hour was celebrating the local traditions. Zossie got to see Hala and Hau face off in a Pokémon battle. Crabominable vs Tauros was the main special. Zossie also discovered that Luxi didn’t seem to care for the pancakes (Zossie couldn’t stop eating them) and that Sorrel must be pretty shy. Zossie rarely saw her at the festival. She would have wondered where her fellow challenger is, but being observant was taking a backseat at the moment.

“Ah there you are”, Hala caught up with Zossie after the battle. Zossie tried to pay attention as best as she could with all the bright lights and celebration. “That sparkling stone you found made a rather unique Z-Power Ring. Usually most only find a sparkling stone when they start their Challenge, it's rare find, keep it safe”. 

Zossie looked at the Z-Power ring. It looked like the one Hau has but the wristband on it was white. The Stone seemed to almost glow with the setting sun.

“It’s like a watch, you put it on your non-dominate arm”, Hala could sense Zossie's confusion. Zossie looked at her right arm. Her equipment was already on her right arm. She might have to make some last minute modifications. 

“Thank you! I can’t wait to use it!”

“Now, first you have to get Z-Crystals for it. I suggest stopping by the school since you’re new to battling” Hala gave Zossie a map.

“Nice”, Zossie looked at the map. It had all four islands on it. She wondered if she could try and implement that to her arm. 

“Good luck. I hope to meet you in battle soon”, Hala left Zossie with her new stuff.

 

Later that night, after the festival, Zossie was at Kukui’s house. She was looking at the sea. 

“So you’re all ready to go”, Dulse was talking to her. “And look, your own Pokémon, just like I said”.

“Yeah”, Zossie stifled back a yawn. She was working on her arm. She had a lab coat draped around her shoulders, with her wearing the right arm of it, but not the left sleeve.

“Why don’t you get some rest?” Dulse asked her.

“I wanna get this done before tomorrow”, she shook her head.

“You don’t need the arm, the comms are on a separate deceive”, Dulse pointed out.

Zossie glanced at her right arm. “I just feel better with it on for some reason”.

“Fair enough”, Dulse said, “Just get some sleep”.

“Yes sir”, Zossie ended the call. She looked at the starry night. The moon was full and was reflecting on the ocean waves. It was something that Zossie never got to see back on Ultra Megalopolis. She reflected that she helped preserve this wonderful sight. She picked up one of the tools out of her bag (how *does* this bag hold everything?) and returned back to the work on the arm.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm going to try and get these out at least once a week. Holidays means super busy so it might be a stumble here and there, but luckily this is really something to write. Also don't worry! Zossie will start picking fights with trainers in the next chapter. 
> 
> I have her as being left handed in this fic. The arm device thing that she has is on her right arm after all.


	4. Family

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Zossie begins her adventure on Route one, in the meantime Soliera picked up some possibly troubling news. Also Zossie and Sorrel have their first battles as Rivals.

-Aether Paradise

Dulse missed Zossie’s enthusiasm brightening up the place. He could tell the Corsola missed her too. He was in the conservation level, trying to avoid the rest of the staff. Easy, seeing as it was four in the morning. He decided it was perfect to try and get a hold of Phyco.

“Dulse? Perfect timing, Soliera has a concern about some numbers that Zossie picked up”.

“Zossie is running numbers?” Dulse asked.

“We can monitor her aura reader as long as she has it on. She knows we’re doing this. That way, she can focus on whatever she has to do”.

“Makes sense”, Dulse responded, “So what did Soliera find?” Dulse then paused, “Where is Soliera?”

“Resting up a bit”, Phyco looked off screen for a bit, “That Furfrou you caught is keeping her company. I told her she should take a break. I’m not going to wake her now”. Phyco cleared his throat, “Anyways, Zossie’s reader picked up interesting numbers near her location”.

“Melemele?”

“Right. The numbers caused by disruptions caused by Ultra Wormholes should be minimal by now. Your presence isn’t adding to this, nor is Zossie’s. We ruled this out since it didn’t show in your primary mission. Something else is causing this disruption”.

“Any theories?”

“Have you figured out how that Rainbow Rocket ended up in Alola?”

“Some kind of technology apparently” 

“Really?” Phyco shock his head, “We don’t have anything like that, how did they get it?”

“I don’t know”, Dulse shrugged, “You don’t think they could have created something like that?”

“Team Rainbow Rocket? You think they can figure out something that we couldn’t? Ultra Space traveling is something Soliera and I have been trying to work on for eleven years. I specifically brought in Zossie for this. This is not something some street thugs can do”.

“With all due respect I don’t know if they can be considered street thugs anymore”.

“True”, Phyco nodded, “In any case, something isn’t right. Keep your eyes open Dulse”.

\---------------------------

Zossie could feel the warmth of the sun on her cheek. She couldn’t remember how she got inside Kukui’s lab. She was on his couch. The sun was in her face. Her eyes felt like they were burning. She tried to find her sunglasses, but without using her eyes it was in vain.

“Pi, Pi?” Luxi nudged Zossie’s right arm. Zossie could tell that she had something for her. She got the item from her, only to realize that they were her sunglasses.

“Thank you!” Zossie petted Luxi. She then realized that her left arm had slight sun damage on it. She wondered if Kukui would let her borrow a lab coat. She glanced at her arm on the desk in front of her. She managed to finish it before she fell asleep. She took off the lab coat. 

“Pi?” Luxi looked worried. Zossie glanced at her right arm. Her forearm had red blotches all over it, traces of her blue skin were visible but for the most part her forearm was red. 

“It’s a vascular birthmark of some sort. My right arm isn’t very strong either. I wonder what happened. I guess my mother would know”, she put a glove over her right hand before slowly putting her mech arm on. “I was told by the people at the orphanage that she was young and felt like she couldn’t take care of me. Maybe someday I’ll meet her. I hope she’ll be proud of me”. 

Zossie looked over her mechanical arm. She managed to incorporate her Z Power Ring into her arm. She can also look up the map of Alola from the same thing she can talk to the rest of the Recon Squad. She smiled. 

“You’re awake! Great!” She looked up in surprise to see Kukui. “Lillie found you passed out last night so I brought you inside”.

“Oh, thank you!” Zossie grabbed her bag, “Oh, can I borrow this lab coat? My arm’s a little burned”.

“Sure Zos. We always help people that need it here”.

“Awesome! Thank you Professor!” Zossie picked up her bag. Luxi climbed to her shoulder. “We’re gonna look for more Pokémon. Train up a bit”. 

“Good idea. Lillie should be on this route with her new Pokémon she got”, Kukui paused, “You got Pokeballs?”

“Yeah, Dulse and I got a couple. They got me a fancy white one too”.

“Alright! Have fun!”

\--------------------------

Zossie loved route one. She remembered the first time she saw it with Dulse. They were investigating aura readings, gathering information on how Alola’s connection on Necrozma. Now  
she’s there training her new Pokémon up a bit.

“Thundershock, Luxi!” Zossie took to battling quite well. After watching Dulse battle she quickly figured out the works of it. 

“Piiichuu!” Luxi shocked the Yungoos. It fell over fainted.

“Good job, you’re pretty confident in all of this”, Lillie was observing Zossie’s battle. Her new Pokémon, an Alolan Vulpix was close by her.

“Thanks. I was a little worried that this was harder than it looked. I’m sure it’ll be harder down the road”, Zossie spied a small bird Pokémon watching them. She looked at her Pichu. 

“Pi Pi?” Luxi squeaked. 

“No, we should catch it”, Zossie answered, “after all, you can’t fight everything by yourself”. Zossie remembered what Soliera said about Luxi still being a baby. 

“That’s a Pikipek”, Lillie looked at Luxi, “If you want to catch it, you need to weaken it but not enough to knock it out. Careful, thunder shock will be powerful against it”. 

“Maybe a different approach than?” Zossie tried to remember what other moves Luxi had. “I know, use Sweet Kiss to confuse it!”

Luxi blew a kiss at the Pikipek. It hit it straight on. The Pikipek tried to fly to Luxi but it crashed into the ground instead. Zossie threw a Pokeball at it. It brought the Pikipek into the ball. The ball started to shake. After the third shake, the ball stopped moving. Zossie picked it up. She looked at the flowers around the route. Poppy would be a good name to call her new friend.

\-----------------------------

She sent Poppy out of its ball. Luxi didn’t seem to like to be inside her ball, but Poppy seemed to not mind being in one. She pet Poppy while she activated her comm. 

“I wonder when Soliera ever sleeps?” Zossie asked Luxi. She looked around. She was by herself with her Pokémon. Lillie had left after insuring that her Pokémon were fully healed. Zossie wanted to head off to the other side of Route One, towards Hau’oli City. In the meantime, she wanted to eat some of the food that Kukui gave her that was leftover from the party. Plus she wanted to show Soliera her new Pokémon. 

“Hey how was the festival?” Soliera didn’t look as tired as she did the last time she talked to her. 

“It was fun! Kukui gave me some really good food for lunch”, Zossie saw Poppy shyly look at the projection of Soliera. “Oh yeah! I caught another Pokémon!”

“I might find some time to upload so you can look at your Pokémon’s nature and such. I might be busy when you call after all”.

“Is there something going on?” Zossie asked.

“It might not be anything, but the numbers on the dimensional reader aren’t going down like we thought. The Captain and I are monitoring the situation”, Soliera turned her attention to Poppy, “That’s a Pikipek. They peck at trees to store berries that they eat. They can spit out the berries seeds as an attack. Did you give him a name?”

“Poppy”, Zossie petted him. 

“Poppy there is a male Pikipek. He has Hasty nature and the ability Skill Link”. 

“Awesome!” Zossie gave Poppy one of the Pokebeans. “Hey little guy, we’re gonna go on an adventure”. 

\----------------------------------

The trainer school looked almost imposing on the way to Hau’oli. The more Zossie learned about Pokémon and battling the more she realized that Dulse should go to a trainer school. She was a beginner in all of this so she welcomed this. She noticed the patches of grass outside of the school. She felt like she was being watched somewhat. 

“Zossie!” Zossie saw Sorrel out the corner of her eye. Her Mawile was waving at Zossie. Sorrel walked over to Zossie. “Fancy seeing you here! Getting your ” 

“Pi!” Luxi squeaked as she jumped off of Zossie’s shoulder to meet with her Mawile.

“Where I’m from we don’t really use Pokémon to battle”, Zossie shrugged, “We just have some, like, for companionship”. The Poipole the Recon Squad keep around could be used in battle as Dulse figured out, but they were more kept around because they’re cute. Everyone in the Squad, including Dulse, loved to pet them in between the stressful day to day of trying to figure out what to do with Necrozma. 

“We’re are you from?” Sorrel asked, “You don’t look like you’re from Alola”.

“I live in Ultra Megalopolis, it’s really dark there”, Zossie tried to not be vague, yet not spend a chunk of time explaining alternate dimensional travel and the summary of the last two months.

“That explains a bit”, Sorrel nodded. “You might be the only person paler than I”. She looked over to one of the battlegrounds in the front. “Hey, we should have a battle, they usually have one at the festival but I had to leave early”.

“Yeah!” Zossie smiled. Her first trainer battle. All Zossie had been fighting are wild Pokémon on Route One. 

“All right, let’s go Mawile”, Sorrel took her place on one side of the battleground. 

“You got this Luxi”, Zossie went to the other side.

“Alright! Use Charm!” Luxi, being faster made the first move. Hearts seemed to fly out towards Mawile. However, Mawile didn’t look like she was affected.

“Mawile has her hyper cutter ability, so charm isn’t going to work”, Sorrel sounded almost amused with that. “Use fake tears!” On cue, Mawile started to cry. Luxi looked somewhat  
uncomfortable with this.

“Well then. Use Sweet Kiss!” Zossie smiled as she saw sweet kiss hit directly on Mawile. Mawile stumbled around a bit.

“Fairy Wind!” Mawile summed a pink wind straight at Luxi. Luxi flew back a bit. Fake tears must have cause her to lower her guard with this. Zossie frowned, she had to act fast.

“Thunder shock!” Luxi unleashed a jolt of electricity towards Mawile. It was a direct hit. Mawile not only looked dazed from the confusion but looked stiff. Luxi had managed to paralyze her. 

“Lucky hit”, Sorrel frowned. “You can’t move at the moment can you?”

“Maw”, Mawile tried to get up. 

“Try and use astonish!”

Mawile shook a bit. Her eyes glowed red as she screamed at Luxi. Luxi jumped, the sound waves hit her directly. Zossie noticed that Luxi started to look wore out.

“Give her one more thunder shock!” Luxi gave another shock to Mawile. Mawile fell over.

“Well, good job”. Sorrel brushed a bit of hair out of face before walking up to her Mawile. “I’ll get you all better girl. You did good”.

“Ma…” 

“Good job Luxi”, Zossie looked at her wary looking Pichu. She was pretty close to fainting. That battle was a very close one.

“Let’s get to the center to heal them up”, Sorrel picked up her Mawile. “She’s not much a Pokeball Pokémon either”.

“Hey how did you two meet anyways?” Zossie asked as they walked on to the Pokecenter.

“My folks gave her to me when she was still an egg for my 11th birthday a couple months ago. It took me ages to convince them to let me go on the island challenge. I’m sensitive to the sun after all. They thought by giving me her it would stop me from wanted to go. I finally got them to cave. I love my parents, I really do, but I want to see the world someday. I can’t do that all hidden away”, Sorrel then turned to Zossie, “What about your folks? They must be okay with you being so far from home”.

“My mom had to give me up when I was younger”, Zossie didn’t feel like leaving this sad. Sure, it sounds bad but her life wasn’t bad. The caretakers were super nice to her and looked after her. Quickly she added, “I kinda have a family in a way. Dulse is kind of like a big brother. He’s here in Alola helping out helping Pokémon and stuff”, again, really vague yet not wrong. “Soliera tells me about Pokémon I run into. I can call her and Phyco anytime I need help. Soliera used to tell me bedtime stories back at home when I couldn’t sleep because the beds were too stiff”.

“That sounds like something a mom would do”, Sorrel commented.

“Yeah. She kind of is one. She never talks about having a family. Phyco looks really mean but he’s a big softie. He’s very much like a granddad or something. He used to sneak me snacks while I was working on things”, Zossie continued. She did realize that the Ultra Recon Squad was probably the closest thing to a real family she ever had. 

“Well that’s good. Family doesn’t have to be blood related after all”, Sorrel and Zossie made it to the Pokémon center. “I feel like Mawile is like a member of my family. Traveling together with her and getting stronger… This is what the Island Challenge is about after all”.

“Agreed!” Zossie smiled. Luxi weakly squeaked in agreement. As Sorrel headed into the center, Zossie still felt like something was watching them. She looked around. Remembering Soliera’s words that something might be off, Zossie felt a tad nervous before shaking it off and heading inside the Pokémon Center.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have plan to draw Zossie's island outfit as well as Sorrel. I've been posting art relating to Ultra Light on PSSOProjects on Tumblr, so be sure to check them out!
> 
> We've all been Sorrel in a Pokemon battle.


	5. Attack

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> While making plans to confront her first trail, Zossie discovers the thread that unravels the plot, as well as a new friend.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Posting this early since I had some time to get this moving. So much for one chapter a week yes?

“You’re Pokémon are fully healed! Be sure to stop by whenever you need too!” The nurse gave Zossie her Pokémon back. Luxi burst out of the ball when she had the chance. She quicky moved to perch on her shoulder. 

“Hey Zossie, wanna drink?” Sorrel waved Zossie over to the Café. Zossie picked up a Tapu Coco. The man behind the counter also gave her more Pokebeans and a lava cookie. “This is great isn’t it?” Sorrel smiled, “The first trial is at Verdant cave. We have to find the Trial Captain, Ilima”.

“Wonder where we’ll find him?” Zossie wondered.

“I’m gonna go back to the school. There’s a Pokémon I want to see if I can find there”, Sorrel finished her tea.

“There’s wild Pokémon at the school?”

“Yeah. There’s patches of grass by the school”, Sorrel got up. She gave her Mawile one of the Pokebeans, “I figure that I should get more Pokémon. Just one isn’t going to help me if we got to have to battle fire or ground types”.

“Maw Maw!” Her Mawile waved as they both left. Zossie gave Luxi another Pokebean. 

Her Comm started to ring. 

“Zossie? Good. I think I have the Pokémon analyzer sent to your end”, Soliera looked proud of herself for completing this without Zossie’s help. “I had Phyco double check it for me. I can’t send over the Pokedex database, seeing as it’s quite large”.

“I mean, that’s pretty good too”, Zossie pointed the comm device at Luxi. It pulled up her information. “It works!”

“Nice”, Soliera sighed. “I was hoping it would work. You’ll still have to call me to know about any new Pokémon you fine then”.

“That’s okay. I like talking to you”, Zossie smiled. “Hey, can you look up a Pokémon?”

“Yes, which one?”

“A Pokémon named Mawile”.

“Mawile huh?” Soliera paused a bit to look it up. “It says here it’s a Steel and Fairy type Pokémon. They usually live in caves. It says it uses it’s cuteness to lead them into a false sense of security before attacking them with its steel jaws”.

“Wow, sounds scary”, Zossie frowned for a moment, “Sorrel’s Mawile seems so friendly”. 

“I’m pretty sure that’s the behavior of wild Pokémon, not more well trained Pokémon”, Soliera theorized.

“Probably”, Zossie smiled, “I gotta go. I’ll talk to you latter Soliera”.

Zossie finished her drink. She went over to the market area to buy a couple of this with the money she won from Sorrel before leaving for the school.

\------------------------------

Zossie returned to the school. She didn’t see Sorrel but she did see two other people standing in the center of the courtyard. One of them was a young man with pink hair. The other was a lady around the same age with soft purple hair.

“Holly, I see you’re back in Alola. You can’t imagine what you missed”, he said to her. 

“I saw from the letter Ilima. Luckily I got my trial back so I’ll be all set. I just wanted to stop by and see the Professor. Sinnoh is nice and cold and all but it doesn’t hold a candle to Alola”, Zossie took a closer look at Holly. She had a very warm looking coat tied around her waist. A trial captain trinket was on a necklace. It looked like the one in Ilima’s hair, but the gem was clear instead of a solid white. 

“Well, from what I heard we have more Trial-goers, there’s one now”, Ilima noticed Zossie.

“Oh, hey!” Holly waved. “If you’re on your trial I’ll see you later down the road then. I’m Holly, nice to meet you”.

“I’m Zossie!”

“Nice name. Well then, I’ll leave the rest to you Ilima. I got to see the professor before I run off to Ula’Ula. See you later Zossie!” Holly left the two alone.

“Captain Ilima here, you want to challenge my trial?” Ilima looked over Zossie. She looked very enthusiastic. He almost felt like if he told her the challenge is to climb the school’s walls to find a Z-Crystal on the roof she’ll be halfway up the wall before he finished the sentence. “The trial site is Verdant Cave on route 2. Meet me there for your first trial”. 

“Count me there!” Zossie proudly said in her jumble of phrases she has heard in Alola. Zossie was full of excitement, before the day was done she was going to have her first trial completed. In fact, she barely processed that Ilima left when he did. 

“Luxi! We have to get to Verdant Cave!” Zossie excitedly said to Luxi who was riding on her shoulder. 

“Pi!” Luxi squeaked in agreement.

“First we should make sure we-“ Zossie froze. Maybe it was a trick of the light being somewhat still unfamiliar to her, but did she a shimmer over where the overgrown grass was? She had heard that in Alola, Ultra Wormholes do occasionally rip open, but she had never actually saw one that opened without some kind of outside interference. After what happened with Necrozma she wouldn’t doubt it if they’ve been popping up more frequently. 

“I know I just saw that”, Zossie mumbled as she ran over to where she saw the shimmer. The gate opened without a fuss. She noted that the school had a lot of kids younger than her there. If something dangerous broke through, would Ilima or Hala be able to get there in time? Could she even face what could escape an Ultra Wormhole?  
Good news, there didn’t seem to be anything there. Maybe Zossie was seeing things?   
She could look at the numbers on her reader to confirm what she thought she saw. 

However something else caught her attention. 

“Hisss!” A Meowth angrily glared at Zossie. Zossie realized that she must have interrupted the Meowth’s naptime or sunbathing. It quickly ran at Zossie, its claws out. Luxi jumped to her defense, shocking the Meowth. It hit it instead directly. Luxi cried in pain.

“Poppy help us!” Zossie sent out her Pikipek. “Use peck to stop it!” Poppy dived at the Meowth. It having two targets confused it, meaning it couldn’t get out of the way and got struck with Poppy’s beak right on its forehead, stuning it a bit. Using the time granted, Zossie dug through her bag for a Pokeball. She looked at the white and red one. It came free since Dulse bought 10 Pokeballs at once and one thing in common between Alola and her world is that you don’t say no to free stuff. She threw it at the Meowth, capturing it inside.

Was it Zossie’s imagination, or did it take not as long for the ball to stop moving? She almost expected the Meowth to break out when she picked up the ball. However it was good. The Meowth was now hers. She sighed. She briefly wondered if the Meowth came through the wormhole. She realized that if she saw a wormhole, it could mean that something, somewhere is trying to escape Ultra Space.

\----------------

Phyco’s work was never done. Paperwork about Necrozma was still a thing. Soliera was always better at this, however he wanted to look over the official reports. Soliera already did the necessary press releases. Phyco would be lost without her.

“Captain!” Soliera barged into his office, the Furfrou closely following behind her. One of the pictures on his wall fell down as she did. 

“Must be important”, Phyco said half to himself half to the panicked looking Soliera in his office.

“Zossie’s reader picked up a possible wormhole”, Soliera explained. “It seems to come from Ultra Space but aside from that…” Soliera shook her head, “We don’t have anything about this”.

“Where is Zossie?” Phyco asked. As on cue the chime of the comm sounded on her monitor. Soliera pressed the answer button.

“Um, hey. Both of you are here. That’s great”, Zossie sounded spooked, “There is a chance I’m just seeing things, but I could have sworn I seen a possible Ultra Wormhole”.

“We were done with this!” Soliera exclaimed. Phyco silently agreed with his more fiery XO. “Did anything weird happen?”

“A Meowth attacked me”, An Alolan Meowth peaked in the corner of the screen to look at Phyco and Soliera. “I named her Sassy”.

Sassy mewed. 

“Zossie”, Soliera sighed. Zossie is brilliant. She’s probably the smartest one in the Squad. She’s still an eleven year old. “Anything else?”

“Nothing too strange, at least not yet”, Zossie looked around.

“Just be careful okay”, Soliera gently said.

“I echo that statement, anything dangerous get Dulse there. He’s officially on standby to help”, Phyco took a glance at Soliera. She looked on edge. “One of us will always be on line. Until we have more information we’re going to assume that something is trying to cross over. Especially since we still don’t have eyes on Rainbow Rocket”.

“Thank you”, Zossie seemed more relaxed, “I’ll be careful! Zossie out!” The screen turned off. 

“I should be there, not her”, Soliera’s voice was low. Nearly eleven years of partnership and he felt uneasy at her carefully controlled rage. 

“Neither of us could control that”, Phyco reminded her. 

“I know”, Soliera rubbed her forehead. Phyco reminded her of his own daughter. Always passionate, always wanting what was fair. Soliera had a strained relationship with her own father before he passed away. Sometimes, he felt like she was as much family as his own, sometimes Zossie and Dulse felt like more additions to this weird family of his. “It’s just, so frustrating, seeing something outside your control when you know that a better solution is there”.

Phyco sighed. He couldn’t help but agree with her. It wasn’t his choice to send Zossie to Alola. When it came to dimensional travel, you’ll make any deal that you can.

\-------------------------

Zossie wished that she could make sense of everything. As Soliera said, they were done with this. She tried to think of anything else than danger. She refocused herself. 

Verdant cave waits for her. Luxi squeaked excitedly. 

“Yeah. We’ll get some more training in and head up there. This trial isn’t going to stop us!” Zossie had decided to listen to Phyco and let the others handle it. After all, she had Sassy to train up.

\-------------------------------  
“I’m sorry but what”, Dulse’s reaction to Soliera and Phyco’s news was basically pure “are you kidding me?”. 

“I’m afraid it’s not over yet”, Phyco responded. Soliera nodded in agreement.

“Is Zossie okay?”

“She’s okay” Soliera confirmed. “We’re going to monitor her to make sure she isn’t in any danger. Later on when her Pokémon are higher level we probably don’t need to worry about her”.

“Why do you think that whatever was trying to go through didn’t?” Dulse asked. Phyco and Soliera exchanged glances. They haven’t thought of that.

“Maybe whatever’s trying to come through got interrupted?” Soliera guessed. 

“I’m going to guess that we’ll find out”, Dulse added, “In any case I’m going to contact a friend for this”.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was kinda sad (yet understood the logic) of the fact that there was no Alolan Ice type trainer (So with that Sina didn't count) so basically Holly is my attempt to include one.


	6. Evolutions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Zossie makes it to her first trial and the signs of her being a strong trainer starts to show.

Hau’oli city was just as Zossie left it. The city was lively. Zossie didn’t feel as stuck out as she did when she first came to the city. Her Dulse didn’t stick around long enough the first time they visited Melemele. They had bigger things to do at that time, to the dismay of Zossie. 

“This isn’t a vacation Zossie, we’re on a reconnaissance mission”, Zossie remembered his reaction when she spotted the Malasada shop. It did feel weird that he wasn’t right by her side.   
He’s still in Alola, she’s still able to talk to him on the comms, but it really wasn’t the same. 

Zossie stopped by the Pokémon Center for a drink. She let Poppy and Sassy out of their balls so they can eat some Pokebeans. Sassy seemed calmer than she did when Zossie caught her. She wondered if the wormhole that she glanced at was to blame. Something deeper is going down. She petted Sassy. Sassy was so soft. She got her comm out, realizing that all in the fun she never asked Soliera information on her new friend.

“Yes Zossie?” Soliera didn’t look as frustrated as last time.

“You know, I never got to ask if you had any information on Meowth”, Zossie looked at Sassy who was trying to paw at Zossie’s drink. 

“You named her Sassy?” Soliera asked.

“It said on the thing that she had a Sassy nature, I thought it fit her”, Zossie shrugged. 

“Makes sense”, Soliera responded. “Huh, the Meowth in Alola look different than in other areas of the world there apparently. It even has a different typing in Alola go with its darker fur. They were brought along from a region known as “Kanto” as pets for the royalty of Alola. Eventually, the Meowth changed themselves and when the royalty became no more they went feral”.

“So I have a Pokémon suit for Royalty?” Zossie looked wide eyed at Sassy who was still trying to get to her drink.

“They still act like it too Zossie”, Soliera pointed out. “You said that Sassy attacked you at the place you saw the wormhole?”

“I think she might have got spooked at it”, Zossie picked Sassy up, who protested softly. “She’s as docile as can be”.

“Meow…” Sassy tried to wiggle out of Zossie’s grasp. 

“There isn’t anything on wormholes causing that much of a stir”, Soliera wondered out loud.

“You don’t think the sudden lights will do it?” Zossie put down Sassy. She returned her to the Pokeball. Poppy chirped at her as she picked him up.

“There might not even be in records of it happening in the first place. This might be all new to Alola” Soliera also pointed out. 

“Isn’t there Ultra Beasts in Alola’s history?” Zossie asked. Poppy chirped as Zossie returned him into his Pokeball.

“I don’t know if they wrote down berserk Pokémon in those legends”, Soliera shook her head, “Captain Phyco and I will investigate this further.

“Thank you”, Zossie knelt down by Luxi. Luxi climbed up on Zossie’s shoulder. “I’m going to Verdant Cave for the first trial. I’ll keep an eye on things”.

“Alright. Take care Zossie”.

\-------------------------

Route 2 smelled like fresh flowers mixed with the sea salt air. Zossie could see the hotel in the distance. A Crabrawler was at the door of the hotel. It ran over to Zossie.

“Pi pi?” Luxi jumped off of Zossie’s shoulder when the Cabrawler got closer to her. It didn’t look like a wild one. They usually hang out in berry piles (Dulse found that out the hard way once) not in front of hotels.

“Crabrawler? You found another?” a middle age man followed the Crabrawler. He shook his head. “You know we don’t have any more room, leave the poor girl alone”.

“It’s okay”, Zossie smiled. 

“You know, we have an amazing beach over there. The water’s crystal clear and the Mantine are friendly”.

“Crab-nab!” The Crabrawler agreed.

“Water?” Zossie felt almost nervous. She had never learned how to swim. Not that they had a whole lot of water in Ultra Megalopolis to swim in, especially since that luxury wasn’t something an orphanage usually springs for. There was something about water that scared her, she couldn’t explain why.

“You okay kid?”

“Yeah, sorry”, Zossie snapped out of her daze. “Um, I have somewhere I need to be actually, but I’ll check it out I promise!”

“Alright. Take care”, the man took his Crabrawler and headed back to the hotel, leaving Zossie alone with Luxi. 

“Pi?” Luxi seemed to worry over Zossie a bit. 

“No I’m good”, Zossie almost could read what her Pokémon was saying. Briefly she wondered if all Pokémon trainers feel this way with their Pokémon; if everyone had this unspoken connection to their partner Pokémon. She just started out as a trainer too. She wondered if Dulse felt the same way with his Poipole, even though he wasn't that good at battling. She knew Hau and Polaris are like that with their Pokémon. Maybe this is normal?

She focused on the task at hand. They needed to get to Verdant Cave. She looked at Luxi. Luxi’s eyes were full of determination. Their first trial was just over the bend. 

“We’re gonna get that Z-Crystal now Luxi. Let’s go”.

\--------------------------

“Looks exactly like I left it”, Zossie said to Luxi once they arrived at the cave. They did a little bit of training against various trainers on the way to the cave. Nothing of note really happened, except that Zossie accidently hit another trainer with a Pokeball after missing a fleeing Ekans. To say that Zossie was relieved to see the cave was an understatement. 

“Ah, you made it. That’s great!” Zossie heard Ilima’s voice behind her. He smiled. 

“I’m glad to run into you. This is your first trial correct?” 

“Yeah!” Zossie smiled, “I’m ready to do this!”

“Well. The enthusiasm you’re showing isn’t hiding anything”, Ilima held an ultra ball in his left hand, “The first part of the trial is a test. Win a one on one battle against me, and you can enter Verdant Cave”.

“One on one?” Zossie frowned, “I can only use one Pokémon?”

“Yes, and I can only use one”, Ilima sent out a small beige Pokémon with a long tail tipped with green. “Smeargle will be your opponent. Choose wisely”.

“Hmm”, Zossie glanced at Luxi. She looked fired up, but she remembered a move that Poppy had that would help her. “I’m going to use Poppy okay?”

“Pi, Pi”, Luxi nodded, although she looked a bit disappointed. Zossie felt somewhat bad about not using her. She sent Poppy out of his ball. He looked ready to fight.

“Alright, we’re ready to begin”. Ilima took a deep breath. He looked intense. “Use Quick Attack!” Smeargle moved so fast that they turned invisible. It hit him straight on. 

“Poppy! Use Super Sonic!” Poppy released a sound wave. It hit Smeargle as it staggered around a bit. Zossie was relieved that it landed that time. She had been rather unlucky with Super Sonic the past couple of battles.

“Nice move”, Ilima paused for a moment, “Smeargle?”

“Smear…” It fell over. Ilima sighed. “Try and use Ember!” It got up. It shook its head and launched a fireball at Poppy. It hit him. Luckily for Zossie it didn’t burn him. 

“Alright, Poppy! Use Rock Smash!” Zossie smiled, she paid attention to the Pokémon school. A red aura surrounded Poppy as he charged towards him. He ran full force into Smeargle, causing it to fly backwards. Still, Ilima’s Smeargle got up, still confused. It glared at Poppy.

“Use Ember once more!” Ilima called out to his Smeargle. Instead of launching another fireball, it tripped and hurt itself. It fainted. “Well then”, Ilima looked surprised. He returned Smeargle to its ball. “Good job”.

Zossie smiled. “Good job Poppy!” Poppy chirped in happiness. 

Suddenly, Poppy began to glow. The light coming from him was so bright that Zossie got a slight headache from looking at him. She wondered what was going on with her friend.

“Your Pokémon is Evolving!” Ilima told her. “He’s growing stronger and changing form”

“Oh wow!” Zossie smiled. She could feel warmth coming from Poppy. From what she can see, the light grew bigger. She wished she could fully see what was going on, but her eyes couldn’t handle the light.

When the light dissipated, Poppy chirped. His new form was bigger, his beak was longer too. He looked stronger and sleeker.

“That’s a Trumbeak! Perfect Pokémon for your trial!” 

“Wow Poppy! You must be really strong now!” Zossie knelt down to where Poppy was and gave him a hug. He chirped happily. She then returned him into his ball. 

“I’ll heal him up before you go forward” Ilima said as he took Poppy’s ball from Zossie. Zossie tried to peer into the cave. It was dark, perfect for her eyes. She could probably take her sunglasses off in the cave. 

“After you” Ilima said after giving Zossie her Pokémon back. Zossie nodded as she walked forward into the darkness.

\-----------------------

“Your trial is to get the Normalium Z that’s in the back of the cave. To do that you must find and defeat three Pokémon that are hidden in their dens”, Ilima pointed out one of the dens. Zossie could make out a Yungoose inside of one.

“I can do that”, Zossie smiled.

“Just be careful, there is a Totem Pokémon watching out over the Z-Crystal” Ilima warned, “It’s a very strong Pokémon. Use caution if you face it”.

“Right”, Zossie remembered how high the aura reader got when she and Dulse went to Verdant Cave. Sneaking by the trial guild wasn’t easy but she figured that if the guys dressed in weird clothes that danced a lot could sneak in surely her and Dulse could.

“You can get the first one, right Luxi?” Zossie asked.

“Pi!” Luxi jumped off of Zossie’s shoulder and ran towards the den.

“Wait no!” Zossie ran after her. Luxi unleashed a large Thunder Shock at the Yungoose. It fainted after one hit. Luxi looked very proud of herself. 

“You can’t run off like that!” Zossie picked Luxi up. “We gotta remember there’s a super strong Pokémon up there”.

“Pi…” Luxi looked sorry. 

Zossie sighed, “It’s okay, just don’t do it again”. She paused for a second. Something was wrong. Shouldn’t there be more wild Pokémon? Are they all hiding? Is the Totem Pokémon the reason why? Either way, she can’t catch any of the wild Pokémon. She decided that it wasn't important to her goal.

“Pi!” Luxi pointed at another den. This time a Yungoose was at attention and glared at Zossie. It charged forward at her. She quickly sent out Sassy. One fake out and a follow up with a newly learned fury swipes was all that it took to knock out that one.

“Good job Sassy!” Zossie got out Sassy’s ball when she suddenly ran off. “Wait, come back!” She ran after Sassy. 

Sassy stopped in front of a TM. Zossie picked it up. It is a TM for the move Brick Break. Zossie wondered why a fighting type TM was in the normal type trial site. Either way, she looked over at her Pokémon wondering if any of them can learn it on her comm device. She smiled when she noticed that Poppy could. She can do this. 

“Thanks Sassy, just try not to run off like that again”, Zossie returned Sassy to her ball.

“Okay so that’s two out of three”, Zossie said to Luxi. She could hear scratching near the back of the cave. “That must be the third”.

“Pi…” Luxi looked at another den. It looked empty. 

“You want to check it out?” Zossie asked her. Luxi nodded. She jumped from Zossie’s shoulder. Luxi then dashed into the den. Zossie knelt down to the den. She couldn’t hear Luxi anymore. She got worried.

“Pi pi!” Luxi dashed out of the den. Following her was a Gumshoos. It looked really angry at Luxi disturbing it.

“Quick! Use Thunder Shock!” 

“Pi!” Luxi aimed a jolt of electricity straight at Gumshoos. It stopped it for a moment. It then dug it’s paw into the ground and threw sand straight into Luxi’s face. She shook her head trying to clear the sand out of her eyes.

“Once more, use Thunder Shock again!” Luxi paused for a second. She jolted Gumshoos again. It fainted after that, the powerful bolt of lightning seemed to hit it just right. Luxi ran over to Zossie. Zossie picked her up to give her a hug.

“Great job!” Zossie brightly said. “You’re the best!”

“Pi pi!” Luxi had a huge smile on her face. Zossie noticed that Luxi was really warm. 

Suddenly, Luxi began to glow. Zossie’s eyes grew wide. She put Luxi back on the ground. Zossie grabbed her sunglasses. Her eyes were still too sensitive to pick out what changes Luxi was going through, but she could make out a longer tail and pointed ears. She grew bigger as well. When the light disappeared, Luxi looked straight at Zossie.

“Pikachu!” She ran over to Zossie. She was bright yellow, with pointed ears and a lightning bolt shaped tail. The tip of her tail was shaped like a heart. Zossie remembered what this Pokémon was. Pikachu was a very popular Pokémon everywhere in Alola. She can barely believe that she had one of her own. 

“I’m so proud of you!” Zossie gave Luxi another hug. Zossie then froze. It felt like something was watching her. She remembered the totem Pokémon. She had defeated all three Pokémon. All that’s left was to find that Z-Crystal. 

Zossie, with Luxi on her shoulder, approached the exit of the cave. It was still bright outside; the sun was high in the sky. Zossie spotted the pedestal. She can see the glinting light of the Z-Crystal. Zossie stepped out into the light. Immediately, she felt like something was glaring at her. 

“Pika?” Luxi seemed to pick up on the tense atmosphere as well. Zossie took a deep breath. She made her way to the pedestal. She can see the Normalium-Z resting on the pedestal. It was a beige color with a black circle pattern in the center. Zossie felt like she saw this pattern before. She reached out to take it. 

The ground shook, causing Zossie to fall over. Luxi fell off of her shoulder. They both froze when they saw the giant Gumshoos glaring at them. Zossie realized that this Pokémon must be the Totem that Ilima warned her about. It jumped into the clearing glaring straight at Zossie. 

“So you’re the one I have to beat”, Zossie glared straight back at the Gumshoos. She stood up. Luxi ran up to her side. “Okay. This is where the fun begin. We got this, better get ready!”

The Gumshoos looked eager for a battle. Zossie was nervous, but she felt confidant that this will be a battle that she will win.

 

…To be Continued

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I feel so cheap using a cliffhanger but this chapter was getting long. I'll try to get the next chapter up before Santa day!


	7. Lost

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Zossie and Luxi face down the Totem Pokemon, while something in Verdant Cave is stirring.

“Luxi!” Zossie called out to her Pikachu. “You ready for this?!” 

Luxi glared at the giant Gumshoos. Zossie could hear the crackle of electricity. 

“Shoo!” The Gumshoos cried. Zossie could see an aura of some sort around it. Zossie remembered how high the aura readings were around Verdant Cave. The unusual size plus the aura around it… Zossie knew that this battle wasn’t going to be easy. 

“We’ll try that that new move you got,” Zossie told Luxi, “Electro Ball!”

Luxi gathered electricity in her tail. She then swung her tail, a medium sized orb flew to Gumshoos, which hit it straight on. It charged forward, a glint in its eye. It tackled her. The   
Gumshoos cried out once more. A Yungoose appeared from the shadows, glaring at Luxi.

“Pika?” Luxi squeaked in surprise when she realized that she was outnumbered. 

“It’s okay!” Zossie reassured her. “Focus on the big one!” Luxi nodded and launched another Electo Ball at Gumshoos. It growled.

The Yungoose’s eyes glowed red. Right after, the Gumshoos tackled Luxi. Luxi collapsed. 

“Luxi no!” Zossie ran towards her, “Are you okay?”

“Pi…” She weakly responded. Zossie looked at the Gumshoos. It looked tired. She then realized that the Yungoose lowered Luxi’s defense. Zossie picked up Poppy’s Pokeball. She had to be more careful. She sent Poppy out of his ball to face the totem. 

“Use Brick Break on the Yungoose!” Poppy glowed white before charging into the smaller Pokémon. The Yungoose ran away from him, leaving the Gumshoos by itself. Realizing that it was by itself and its health low, it charged at Poppy. Poppy endured the full body tackle.

“It’s all worn down!” Zossie called out to Poppy. “One more Brick Break!”

“Trum!” Poppy chirped as he built up all the power he needed to take the totem Pokémon down. He then slammed into the Gumshoos stomach, causing it to fall over. 

“Great job! Now to get the Z-Crystal!” Zossie cheered. She then froze as slowly the Gumshoos pick itself back up. Glaring once more at Zossie, it then turned and disappeared in the cave. Zossie waited for a moment to assure that it really wasn’t going to come back. When she was sure of it she walked over to the pedestal. She placed Luxi on the ground, she regained some of her strength to walk. Zossie reached into the pedestal to grab the Normalium-Z. The Crystal was warm in her hand.

“Great job!” Ilima walked out of the cave. “The Gumshoos I trained was no match for you and your team. Now that Normalium-Z,” Ilima glanced at the crystal in Zossie’s hand. “That’ll let your Pokémon unleash a normal type Z-move.”

“Z-move?” Zossie looked over the crystal. 

“Yes, your Z-Power ring can transfer power over to your Pokémon, combining your wishes to use a powerful attack. You can only do this once per battle, as it is very draining on you,” Ilima explained. “In order to use the Z-move, you strike a pose like this”. Ilima brought his arms forward before swinging them to form a “Z”. Zossie tried to copy this. Luxi imitated her trainer.

“You got it!” Ilima smiled. “Now that you completed the trial, you can catch the Pokémon in this area”. 

“Great thank you!” Zossie placed the Crystal in her bag. One of the pockets was in a spot that’s easy to reach in the heat of battle. 

“This is the only trial here on Melemele Island, now you have to face Kahuna Hala in battle,” Ilima turned to leave, “I wish you good luck! It’ll be a very exciting battle for both of you”.  
Zossie nodded. Luxi climbed back on her shoulder. She didn’t fit as easily as she did as a Pichu, but she doesn’t seem to mind. Zossie gave her a scratch behind her ear as they headed back inside Verdant Cave.

\-----------------------------

Zossie thought that Verdant cave would feel different since she defeat the totem Pokémon. It didn’t. It felt like the air is charged with tension. 

“Pika?” Luxi felt it too. Zossie patted her. She didn’t want to find any new Pokémon. She just wanted to leave.

“We’re not sticking here.” Zossie told Luxi as a reassurance. Luxi wasn’t sure that that was how that phrase went. Suddenly Luxi got tense. Zossie couldn’t tell what was going on with her. 

“Luxi you’re scaring me a bit.” Zossie could have sworn that she heard a roar. She turned around to try and find what made that sound. A shockwave knocked over Zossie. Luxi jumped off of Zossie’s shoulder while she falling down. 

“Pika Pi!” Luxi called out to Zossie. Zossie rolled over to face a giant red Pokémon. No… Zossie knew what this Pokémon was. The giant silver proboscis stood out while she was researching the Ultra Beasts. It belonged to the Ultra Beast Absorption, Buzzwole. It stood over Zossie, slowly getting closer to her as if it was transfixed to her somehow. Luxi was between them as if she was protecting Zossie.

“Opal! Use Close Combat!” Suddenly Buzzwole was attacked by a Kommo-o. The Dragon and Fighting Type caught the Buzzwole off guard. The Kommo-o forced the Buzzwole away from Zossie before it ended the barrage of punches by slamming it with its tail, launching the Buzzwole into a wall. Before Buzzwole could retaliate, it disappeared with a flash of light. Zossie wondered where it went before she heard the “click” of a successful Pokémon capture. She saw the beast ball resting on the ground where it once stood. 

“Great job,” the trainer the Kommo-o belonged to walked up to retrieve the beast ball. “Hey are you alright?”

Zossie recognized the trainer as soon as she saw her. She had dark hair in double braids that rested on her shoulder, dark skin, and bright green eyes. Zossie briefly wondered why the Alolan Champion would be here before she remembered that she lived on Melemele. 

Polaris took a closer look at Zossie before she could recognize her. She wasn’t in her usual attire after all. “Zossie?”

“Excellent. I’ll send the data to the Captain,” Zossie could hear Dulse’s voice somewhere. He’s here too? “That seemed to be the only one. Strange.”

“Dulse?” Zossie called out to her partner. He looked up from the comm he had. “What just happened?”

“Zossie?” Dulse looked at Polaris and Opal. “Was that who that beast was after?”

“Most likely. I was told that Ultra Beasts are drawn to those who’ve been through Ultra Wormholes.” Polaris explained.

“They want to go home.” Zossie quietly said. The Buzzwole didn’t attack her after all. Not yet anyways. She had read some of the reports of Ultra Beasts that they had at Aether. She knew that even if they didn’t mean to hurt anyone they were still dangerous.

“You’re on your Island Challenge aren’t you?” Polaris asked Zossie. 

“Yes! Look what I got!” Zossie held up her Normalium-Z. Dulse looked over it.

“Good job!” Polaris smiled, “You never know, you might get strong enough to challenge the League.” 

“You think so?” Zossie picked up Luxi. She climbed up to her shoulder. Polaris recalled Opal back in its ball. 

“Let’s get out of here,” Dulse looked where the Buzzwole made the imprint on the wall of the cave. “We got what we came for. I doubt this alone will resolve this mess.”

\---------------------------------

Back at the Route 2 Pokémon Center, Zossie was telling Dulse her adventure so far over some drinks. Polaris had left to talk to Ilima to warn him about what happened in the cave. 

“Interesting,” Dulse looked at the Normalium Z that Zossie let him borrow. “So this is how trainers use those z-moves.” 

“Yeah,” Zossie showed him the Z-ring on her arm, “I’m supposed to use this with it!”

“Where did you get that?” Dulse looked at it. It seemed to sparkle in the low light that the Pokémon center supplied.

“Found it by Luxi on Route one,” Zossie sipped another bit of her juice. “No one is sure where it came from.”

“It had to come from somewhere,” Dulse sighed. “Does it work okay?”

“I never tried it actually,” Zossie admitted. Dulse gave the Crystal back to Zossie. 

“There’s a patch of grass outside,” Dulse pointed out, “What are you waiting for?”

\--------------------

The northernmost part of Route 2 overlooked the sea over steep cliffs covered in tall grass. Dulse was worried that perhaps this wasn’t a good idea. If Zossie fell off of the edge… He remembered what he had told Soliera back before him and Zossie traveled to Alola. 

“If it was up to me,” Soliera’s words replayed in his mind, “it would be you and me going to this place. We’re both trained for this situation. We don’t know what’s there. What you and Zossie need to do, is find that solution to the problem we have and bring it here any means necessary.”

“Will Lunala allow travel with anyone other than Zossie and I?” Dulse asked her. 

“I don’t know. I don’t care. As long as you and Zossie stay safe, that’s all that matters. That’s another thing, Zossie was never supposed to be a field specialist. Make sure you keep her safe,” The next words were almost burned in Dulse’s memory. “I don’t care how smart she is. She’s too young for all of this.”

Dulse could feel frustration off of her. Soliera was one big mystery to him. Phyco he knew had some sort of family and Zossie is well, Zossie. He didn’t even know how old Soliera was. All he knew about her was that she and Phyco created the Ultra Recon Squad eleven years ago. 

“Dulse!” Dulse snapped back to the present day. A Spearow was charging angrily at Sassy. “I found a Pokémon!”

“What are you waiting for?” Dulse asked her in an attempt to make it seemed like he was paying attention. 

Zossie nodded. She placed the Z-Crystal on her ring. She then took a deep breath and turned it. An aura seemed to surround her. She copied the same moves that Ilima showed her, Sassy mimicking her. When she finished the aura moved over to Sassy. Sassy then charged at the Spearow, dashing into it at a high speed. The Spearow stood little chance against the powerful   
Breakneck Blitz. Sassy proudly smirked at her fallen opponent.

“Alright, enough posing”, Zossie chuckled as she petted Sassy. Suddenly something caught Zossie’s eye. It was a small canine looking Pokémon, a Growlithe. Sassy tensed up when she s  
saw it. It look like it just woke up from taking a nap. Zossie felt bad, showing off the Z-Move was probably what woke it up. It growled at Sassy. Sassy hissed right back.

“Zossie, going to do something?” Dulse asked. Zossie nodded.

“Use scratch Sassy, we’re going to wear it down!” Zossie wanted another Pokémon. The Growlithe spat a small ember at Sassy. Sassy countered with a scratch straight to its face. Zossie used one of the Great balls Ilima gave her to catch it. She had gotten better at aiming, instead of missing it was dead on. It took longer for the ball to stop moving, but it eventually did. 

“Great work,” Dulse complemented her. “I see I have nothing to worry about.”

Zossie frowned. “As long as any Ultra Beasts don’t find me,” she pointed out. “What is going on anyways? Has anyone got any ideas?”

“Something is trying to get free from Ultra Space, that’s the leading theory,” Dulse said. “We don’t know who, or what is it.”

“Well that’s comforting,” Zossie looked back at Verdant Cave. Luxi softly squeaked, worried about her trainer’s sudden lost in thought.

“You better show Soliera your new Pokémon. Have you got a name yet?” Dulse was okay with changing the subject. Her mind needed to be elsewhere.

“I was thinking Fluffy,” Zossie looked at the Great Ball in her hand. “He looks so soft after all.” 

“Zossie!” Zossie heard Sorrel come her way. Her Mawile happily trailed behind her. “You already did the trial before me?” Zossie showed Sorrel her crystal. “Sweet. I already won my battle against Ilima. I can’t wait to take my trial!”

“I haven’t picked up anything on the reader,” Dulse reported. 

“One of your friends?” Sorrel asked. Zossie nodded.

“Myself and the Champion are investigating Ultra Wormhole sightings,” Dulse explained, “The Ultra Recon Squad has us stationed for this purpose.”

“Ultra Recon Squad huh?” Sorrel frowned. “Sounds important.”

“Yeah. I’m the tech for the Ultra Recon Squad, but they’re letting me take a break so I can do the Island Challenge.” Zossie explained. 

“How nice of them.” Sorrel respond. Her Mawile curiously poked Dulse. “Leave him alone Mawile!”

“Well, it’s nice to meet you.” Dulse said that both to Mawile and Sorrel. “I should catch up with Polaris. Stay safe Zossie.”

“Will do!” Zossie waved. 

“So you get to face Hala in battle right?” Sorrel looked at the start of Route three. A trial guild was watching the road. “You should take that route and check out the meadow. He’ll let you through since you got the Z-Crystal.” Sorrel and her Mawile glanced at the cave. “Anyways, we gotta run. See you later Zossie!”

Zossie waved to her, Luxi waved too. She ran to her next adventure on Route 3.

\------------------------------

“A Buzzwole? It’s far away from home.” Phyco noted. Soliera was listening while working on some of the data files. 

“We agreed that it was looking for a way back. It was drawn to Zossie.” Dulse reported.

“It can sense that she isn’t from Alola either.” Phyco said, “It’s good that the Champion intervened when she did. It might have turned to a more hands on approach on figuring out how she got there.”

“Are Buzzwole usually violent?” Soliera asked.

“Not usually. They preferred to be left alone.” Phyco answered. “Take caution. Any of these beasts can turn violent given that they are in a place they don’t belong.” 

“Acknowledged. Dulse out.” Dulse’s picture vanished from the screen. 

“Have we got any headway on the prototype?” Soliera asked Phyco.

“Zossie started headway on it when she was here. I thought I could finish the rest, but everything that’s been happening has put it on hold.” Phyco sat down on the chair next to hers.

“The Buzzwole information that Dulse forwarded us.” Soliera answered Phyco’s unspoken question. 

“Anything?”

“It was in a lot of distress. When Polaris caught it, whatever pain it was in was eased. That doesn’t make sense. Being in another world alone doesn’t cause pain like that.” Soliera shook her head. “Something is wrong.”

Phyco sighed. He’s getting too old for all this mystery stuff.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Apologies for the lateness. Hope everyone had a safe and wonderful holiday! I have a lot of work this week, but I'll try get the next chapter up before next year.


	8. Sunset

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Zossie makes her way on her final test to Melemele, will a figure from Soliera's past may have came back to haunt the Ultra Recon Squad.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Slight delay on this because of the sudden need of a replace keyboard (those are a bit important with writing after all) so thank you for your patience!

Zossie didn’t realize how late it was. When she got to the clearing of the mountain area of Route 3, the sun was setting casting an orange light in the sky. She and Dulse had little time to really admire such things until now. Ultra Megalopolis had its own system of dimming lights as a way to imitate the cycle of days, but the real thing puts it to shame. Zossie took a moment to enjoy the view.

\----------------------

“How do you think those Rainbow Rocket thugs traversed Ultra Space without Cosmog or the Alola Legends?” Phyco was still bothered by this. All they had was an incomplete prototype. How did they figure this out before they did?

“Maybe they had outside help?” Soliera was still not fully paying attention. 

“I forget, did Rinthula manage to sell the information he stole?” 

“What?” Soliera’s attention returned to Phyco. “That was years ago, before the Ultra Recon Squad was established.”

“Ultra Space travel was something in the works for a long time. Maybe if the Chief treated this more seriously back then we would have figured this out already.” Phyco explained.

“He was never a huge fan of mine.” 

“You hacked into the tips database to submit a tip instead of the normal way.”

“I wanted to make sure he saw it,” Soliera shrugged. “It worked.”

“You then punched Rinthula in the face once we apprehended him.”

“He deserved it,” Soliera nonchalantly responded. “If this is all because of him then it’s fitting. He’s still screwing with us beyond the grave.”

“Did he managed to sell what he got from the research department?” Phyco repeated.

“I don’t know. I guess it is possible. Once I found out he was selling the system out I turned him in. I never checked his invoices.” Soliera turned back to the computer program she was messing with.

“Did you see that they aired the ceremony they did for us last week?” Phyco changed the subject.

“I did,” Soliera answered. “I never want to wear anything that fancy ever again.”

“I told them that everything is back to normal.” Phyco sighed.

“Well, you didn’t know at the time that you lied to the entire city.” Soliera tried to sound encouraging. Before Phyco had a chance to respond to that the chime of the Comm sounded. 

“It’s Zossie,” Phyco read the Caller ID. “She probably wants to talk to you.”

“Most likely,” Soliera moved to where the camera was for the comms. “Where are you going?”

“I need to make a call.” Phyco quickly said before he left the room.  
\-------------------------

“Isn’t it so pretty!” Zossie pointed the comm’s camera towards the sunset. 

“I’ve never seen anything like that,” Soliera answered. “The Captain’s missing out on this.”

“You know, when me and Dulse saw the sunset we both were like “We gotta keep this safe.” Necrozma may have meant well, but it couldn’t take this world’s light.”

“Captain had hoped that maybe it could return the light to this world,” Soliera mused, “I think he forgets that we would have to get used to it.”

“I bet his eyesight’s super bad.” Zossie giggled.

“His daughter’s eyes are really bad actually,” Soliera smiled. "She has a hard time seeing anything the last time I saw her."

“Oh!” Zossie showed her Luxi. “Luxi’s a Pikachu now!”

“So cute!” Soliera paused to bring up the information. “Pichu evolves when it has a high bond with its trainer.”

“Awe you really like me!” Zossie gave Luxi a hug. “Anything about Growlithe?”

“They’re a really loyal Pokémon. It’ll stand up to anything that threatens its trainer.” Soliera read.

“Awesome. Thank you!”

“Anytime,” Soliera smiled. “What’s up next for you?”

“I’m going to fight the Kahuna,” Zossie got up. “I’m super ready to after this.”

“Good luck!” 

“Thank you, Zossie out.”  
\---------------------------  
The rest of Route three was filled with training for the upcoming battle. She decided to stop by the Meadow on her way to Iki Town. The beautiful yellow flowers looked even more so with the light of the setting sun.

“There you are,” Sorrel and her Mawile greeted Zossie and Luxi. “I figured that you’d be here.”

“Me and Dulse stopped by here for a moment. We couldn’t really take it in like this though,” Zossie saw the opening to the Seaward Cave. “We tried to crawl out of that. Dulse got stuck.” Zossie still wondered why Lunala dropped them off at the bay. It never answered that question of hers.

“You never really said what you guys did.” Sorrel frowned. 

“We were set in place to research Ultra Beasts and Ultra Space as well as monitoring the Blinding one,” Zossie paused. “Well, we did until it broke loose.”

“So, all those dark clouds over Poni Island, you were there?” Sorrel asked.

“Yeah. That was all Necrozma’s doing. Luckily Polaris got the light back,” Zossie motioned towards the flowers. “Would be a shame to lose this scene. I don’t have anything like this back at home.”

“You don’t?” Sorrel sounded confused. 

“My world has no light, it was stolen by Necrozma when my ancestors broke it,” Zossie recalled the story that Soliera told her when she joined. “We use artificial lights so we can see. Once Dulse and I came here we couldn’t even cope with the light without special visors. When we adjusted to the light, we saw how beautiful Alola is. We decided that we need to stop Necrozma from taking this away.”

“I guess I owe you thanks.” Sorrel said.

“I don’t think I did much compared to Polaris.” Zossie shook her head. Or even Dulse, she thought in her head. 

“Nonsense!” Sorrel exclaimed, “You did more than a lot of people that actually live here, that’s something to be proud of.”

Zossie didn’t answer. She just gave Luxi a pat on her head.

“You still got to battle Hala right?” Sorrel broke the silence. “Go on, I want to stick around here for a bit.”

“Alright. See you next time.”  
\-----------------------------

Zossie made it to Iri town with some sunlight still left. She felt proud on getting through the route unscratched. She had battled a really good trainer that gave her a TM for Roost. Other events include getting chased by a Crabrawler when she was trying to get some berries on the ground, and playing with a Rockruff outside of Iri town. 

“Flareon! Use Flamethrower!” Hau pointed to an unlit torch. The fluffy looking Pokémon expelled a blast of fire from its mouth, setting the torch alight. “Good job!” Hau gave his Flareon a scratch behind its ears.

“Hey Hau!” Zossie greeted him with her own version of the Alola greeting. “An Alola to you! You look well!”

“Alola!” He greeted back with the traditional rainbow like greeting. “How’s your island trial going?”

“I got the Z-Crystal!” Zossie excitedly showed him. “I get to battle the Kahuna right?”

“That’s right!” Hau nodded. “We’re getting this all set up for your battle. Ilima already told us that you and Sorrel completed the Trial, so we thought we’d get things ready.”

“Awesome! This battle’s going to look good!” Zossie complemented. She then looked around. “Where is he?”

“He should be coming back soon,” Hau moved on to the other torch. “He had something to attend to. One of the Elite Four trainers needed to talk to him about something. He was very vague.”

“Elite Four?” Zossie didn’t hear that word before.

“Yeah, if you want to challenge the Pokémon League you have to face four very strong trainers one after the other. Then you fight the Champion. If you beat the Champion then you become the new Champion.” Hau explained.

“Wow. That sounds pretty hard.” 

“It is pretty challenging. I managed to get as far as the Champion but I haven’t beaten her yet.” Hau scratched the back of his head.

“Maybe someday you’ll beat her,” Zossie giggled. “I’ll get there someday too. Maybe one day we can battle!”

“I look forward to it!” Hau excitedly said. 

“Flare?” His Flareon looked at the last unlit torch.

“Yeah go ahead!” Hau nodded. His Flareon spit fire at the torch. “Nice job!”

“You got everything done already? Good job.” Hala walked into town.

“Tutu! There you are!” 

“Sorry about that,” Hala turned his attention to Zossie. “I heard that you got Ilima’s trial completed.”

“Yeah!” 

“Ready to battle?” Hala stepped on one side of the field. 

“Yes I am!” Zossie took to the other side. Luxi stayed by her side.

“Good!” Hala held up an Ultra Ball. “I’ll test your bond with your Pokémon with this.”

Zossie held up Fluffy’s great ball. She was ready. They sent out their Pokémon at the same time. Hala’s first Pokémon was a Machop. Fluffy looked excited. 

“Use Focus Energy!” Hala commanded the first move. 

“Use Leer, Fluffy!” Zossie then paused for a moment. She remembered the newly learned move that she taught Fluffy. “Okay now use Flame Wheel!” Fluffy barked then surrounded himself with fire before charging at Machop. It did a lot of damage to it.

“Use Revenge!” Machop countered with a powerful looking move. Fluffy looked dazed but he held on.

“You okay?” Zossie asked. Fluffy barked. “Okay use Ember to finish it off!” Fluffy breathed a small flame at Machop. It fell over. Hala called it back to its ball.

“Good job Zossie, you’ve learned a lot about Pokémon a lot since you started.”

“I did!” Zossie smiled. 

“But it’s not over yet!” Hala held up another Ultra Ball.

“I’m ready!” Zossie excitedly said.  
\------------------------

“We think that whoever is doing this has connections to a hacker that was apprehended 12 years ago,” Phyco briefed Dulse about the new information. “I had some confirmation that he did have access to an old prototype of a device that would allow travel through Ultra Space without any help from a Pokémon like Lunala.”

“If we had something like that 12 years ago why haven’t we got any further with it?”

“As you know, the Ultra Recon Squad is an official subset of the Police Force, so the Chief ultimately has say over allocating funds for research like this. To put it lightly he did not see the importance of something like that at the time.”

“Isn’t he the same one that doesn’t like Soliera because she punched someone in the face?”

“He deserved it.” Soliera responded.

“It did take us a while to convince him that just two people isn’t going to do much here.” Phyco reminded Dulse. Dulse remembered how long it took for his application to even get considered. 

“So all it took was something bad to actually happen for him to take this seriously?”

“Pretty much.” Phyco sighed. 

“Luckily whatever’s going on seems to be just happening in Alola for the time being, so he’s more than content to let us do our jobs,” Soliera added. “For once.”

“Should we worry about this hacker?” Dulse asked.

“Not unless ghosts can leak more secrets. He died from a bad infection around three years ago,” Phyco answered. He then turned to Soliera. “Did you talk to him at all before then?”

“Once,” Soliera eyed a monitor. “He still believed that he was doing the right thing. “Information must be free.” A worthy statement, but it loses a lot of meaning when you’re selling it.”

“You knew him personally?” Dulse asked Soliera.

“A friend of mine. I got in a fight with my mom when I was 17 and he helped me find a place,” Soliera paused for a moment, collecting her thoughts. “Then I found out that he was lying to me about his little mission statement and here I am.”

“Is he the same guy you punched in the face?” 

“Why is that such a big thing?” Soliera asked. “I just wanted him to match.” She gestured to her obscured right eye.

“You got him in the nose.” Phyco reminded her.

“Anyways, so that could be the result of what’s going on? Something that happened 12 years ago?” Dulse asked.

“It’s not too unusual, effects like that can have a delay”.

“Right. Thanks for the information Captain. Dulse out”. He shut off the Comm just as Polaris walked out to meet him.

“So Kahili says she’ll have everything under control and I’m inclined to believe her on this, find out anything on your end?” Polaris asked him.

“Rainbow Rocket could have gotten the technology from someone that hacked us then sold it to someone.”

“Huh,” Polaris paused. “We should go to Akala soon. Olivia should know what’s going on.”

“Good idea.”

“We can wait for Zossie and her friend if you want, unless you think she’ll want to use Mantine?”

Dulse shook his head. He knew that Zossie gets a bit nervous around water. “We can wait for them. We should see if the Professor will lend us his boat.”

“Good idea.” Polaris nodded as she turned to the direction of his lab. Dulse followed until something caught his eye. Was that a glimmer of light about where Ten Carot Hill was?

“Hey Dulse, something wrong?” Polaris looked concerned. Dulse looked back at her before turning back towards the sky. Maybe he was imagining it?

“No, it’s fine.” Dulse followed her with a slight worry that maybe it wasn’t fine.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Rinthula is short for Labyrinthula, a genus of Slime molds. There is a species that's called "Labyrinthula Zostera" that specifically targets Eelgrass, especially Zostera Marina, which is where both Zossie's English and Japanese names derive from. It causes disease to the eelgrass. Also next time someone tells you that you don't learn anything in fanfics you can laugh at them. You're welcome.
> 
> There is only one or two chapters left in the first part of Ultra Light! Thank you everyone for reading!.


End file.
